Thermal Reservoir Simulation Introduction Thermal simulation is probably the most challenging aspect of reservoir simulation at present. From a numer cal simulation point of view, the inclusion of thermal effects involves a number of different issues from con- ventional reservoir engineering, The author does not believe a good overview exist in the literature presenting the current state of the art. Here isthe approach taken by the author 1. Provide a brief description ofthe various processes ‘nat exist today and compare the differences and common aspects: a Primary production with sand b. Steamflooding ¢. Cyclic steam stimulation (CSS 4. Steamassisted gravity drainage (SACD) 2.Describe the aspects of thermal simulation that are not common to the simulations described earlier in this book a, Formulation b. Steam properties d. Thermal conductivities e. Geomechanics Equilibrium ratios Temperaturs-dependent viscosities fh. Differences in relative permeability iL. Detailed grids j. Nine-point difference schemes Numerical difficulties with thermal simulation: a. Steam injection well instabilities b. Countercurrent flow c. Slabbing, Averaging thermal properties Detailed process discussion a, Convection b, Solution gas Foamy oil flow d. Thermal expansionPractical Reservoir Simulation © Hiydrautic fracturing {Shearing 8 Dilation 5. Discuss typical issues that exist in bitumen prone areas a. Channel environment b. Shate plugs © Inclined heterolithic stata (IHS) {nerbedding ©. Discontiauities 1. Water above and below & Gas above and below 6. Describe a number of design isues that are han: dled through simulation: a, Operating conditions b. Subcoo! well controls Weil length Well spacing Vertical spacing between horizontal injector and producer wells & Startup 3 Artificial lt hi Design tradeotts i. Global optimization State of technology ‘Thermal reservoir simulation is still changing rapidly primarily due to changes in the modeling of SACD. This is also the topic of most interest in the Current literature Steamtlooding and cyclic steam stimulation will be addressed here but ia considerably less cetail than SAGD. Conversely although there isa great deal of material pre. sented here on SAGD, it has been somewhat dificult to assemble a description of SAGD in a coherent fashion, due to the rapid evolution of this technology. The fist ‘successful demonstration of the SAGO process was about 20 years ago, Undoubtedly, there will be considerable demand for SAGD in the near future, particulary in Canada, Venezuela, China, and the United States. Brief Description of Main Processes Primary recovery Provided the oil viscosity s sufficiently tow, primary production is possible in heavy oil reservoirs. This uti lizes the classical solution gas drive mechanism, Although this isnot a thermal recovery technique, it has been included for two reasons. Historically, great effors have been made to minimize sand production by the use of liners and sand screens. Optimization often con- cerned minimizing the number of sand cleanouts that were required to keep a well on production using con- ventional suckerrod pumps. With the development of the progressive cavity pump, itis now possible to pro- duce sand and oil simultaneously. Empirical evidence cleatly shows that much greater production is obtained if sand production is allowed, This has led to new problems: wells produced in this manner develop large piles of sand, which must be disposed of or utilized in an environmentally accept- able manner sar < The reason for these higher production rates has been the subject of considerable research. The net results of this research indicated that wormholes, or to be more technically precise, shear zones, develop. There is a considerable permeability enhancement in the sheared zone. This process is similar to the mechan Jes of the sand in the reservoir with thermal processes. Hence, this type of production will be analyzed using similar technology—simulators Steam flooding, cyclic steam stimulation (CSS), and steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) In conventional heavy cil, steam is used as a displac- ing medium, The basic predictive technique is based on classic Buckley-Leverett frontal advance theory. much ike a waterflood. The early work on ths topic involved deter- ‘mining how much heat would be lost down the well to overburden and underburden and was aimed at getting the steam to the steam front, where frontal advance couldtake place. This reservoir mechanism relies on some movement of the oil behind the front, The general process is shown diagrammatically in Figure 19-1. This ectinique is used in a number of places. Much of the development of steamflooding took place in the Kern River field of California, Note that the key to the process is delivering heat to the formation via convection: although conduction is ever present and must be accounted for to properly characterize the process, con duction isa very slow and generally ineffective means of neating. On the other hand, many Kern River operators have capitalized on the 20+ years of conduction hot plate heating—especially from a lower zone since steam over- rides—by subsequently recompleting and carrying out thermal operations in adjacent, especially upper. zones, In some reservoirs, the oil is not sufficiently mobile to allow it to move behind the front, Often, such very heavy, very viscous oit & referred to as bitumen. This precludes direct displacement. The process relies on obtaining injectivity into the cold bitumen with steam and hot water and, in the process, convectively heating the reservoir, and then producing the heated fluids back. This process is repeated for a number of cycles, hence the name, cyclic steam stimulation. In some places, this process is, rvoir Simulation Known as hulf and puif. The key to the process is getting the steam into the formation despite the bitumen’s immo- bility. This is done by a mixture of geomechanical processes, which include hydraulically fracturing deforming the reservoir and disturbing the sand grain structure of what are usually unconsolidated sands. This is shown in Figure 19-2. This technique was largely devel ‘oped in the Cold Lake area of northeastern Alberta, From a reservoir modeling perspective, predicting perform: ance proved very difficult, The major developments required were the direct modeling of the lydraulic frac turing/deformation process ard accounting for changes in the sand permeability and porosity Cyetic steam stimulation proved useable in a signifi cant portion of the tarsands, mostly in the Clearwater for mation, which is relatively shallow and has initial oil vis cosities on the order of 100,000 cp. The ‘lagship of this technology is Ess0's Cold Lake project, which began com: ‘mercial operation in 1985. Subsequently, it did not prove to be useful in the deeper, more viscous McMurray for mation (Initial oil viscosities on the order of 1,000,000 cp). AK this time, horizontal wells were becoming a reali- ty. Dr. Roger Butler is widely credited with the develop- ment of the SAGD process. Injector Praducer| Steam zone a slow-moving oi bank Water toweng ewough 5 Saturation | Diagram showing the Distribution of Temperature, Pressure, and Saturations in Hypothetical (One-Dimensional Stesmtlood Fg. 19-1 Distribution of Temperature, Pressure, and Saturation for ldealized Steamflood > 423Simulation oma expansion of otuman vodging sana and aowng wana Steams ei Ragin Warne oirurbance seranag in ott Povsble Mechanism fo the Disruption and Factoring of& Tar Sand Reserve Fig (9-2 Mechanism Associated with Fracturing Tar Sands, Cy The concept behind SAGD is relatively simple. Two horizontal welis are died in the formation—one direct ly above the other. Communication is developed between the two wells via circulation, Heat conduction "melts (eviscosifies) the bitumen between the two wells. When communication is developed, steam is injected into the {op weil and melted production s gathered inthe bottom well. This s shown in Figure 19-3, Mechanism: + steam condentes a interface © 04 and condensate drain to wen at Boniom Flow is caused by gravity ‘© Chambar grows upwards and sideways: ‘Steam flows to intertace and condenses Heatas oil tows /vawol Continuous steam Injection into chamber Oil and condansate rain continuously Fig, 9-3 Basic Description of SAGD Process The original implementation was done by Esso in a test with a horizontal well and a vertical well. The success of the method was not apparent immediately, and Esso discontinued the idea and the associated research. paper was written on this test say Steere i Steam Stimulation (CSS) The underground test facility (UTF) The Alberta government, through its research organi- zation the Alberta Oil Sands Technology and Research Authority (AOSTRA), was convinced to try a more detailed investigation of the SAGD concept in ani under ground test facility (UTR). The results are shown dia grammatically in Figure 19-4 This was.a very ambitious project, with wells drilled horizontally from mine shafts and utilizing extensive instrumentation. The results can only be described as a runaway success. Four different phases have been implemented at this site. The project was turned over to a commercial operator—originally the Gibson Petroleum Corporation Subsequent analysis of the original Esso test, in fight of the successful UTF experiment, indicates that the experiment was, in fact, quite successful with the bene- fit of hindsight Public data At present, only select information is available in the public domain with respect to SAGD. The UTF resul have been available to those who participated in the pro}- ect or who subsequently joined. In a small number of pilot projects, the data is still confidential for a defined period. The first commercial schemes should have public results soon, which will expand the amount of informa- tion available on this copic,Fig 19-4 UTE Project Unique Aspects of Thermal Simulation Formulation Thermal reservoir simulators are similar to con: ventional black oil simulators in that they are based on the volumetric material (mass) balance (Some: times called the continuity equation) and Darcy's Law. In the case of 2 thermal simulator, the model also conserves energy. Other references Much of the current stearnfiood and steam stimulation technologies are described quite well in existing texts. This material will not be repeated in detail here. Butler has prepared a considerable amount of material in his textbook on the analytical development of SAGD. While this material was pivotal in developing that technology. is the author's belief that numerical simulation, which much more completely and accurately incorporates mut tidimensional effects, variable reservoir description, and other importan: dynamics including geomechanics, will prove to be the ultimate design methodology. Steam properties The properties of steam are welhknown poiats relevant to simulation are the position of the vaporliquid line and the critica point the amount of energy required to heat steam the latent heat of vaporization The key ‘The vapor liquid line is shown in Figure 19-3.! Dry superheated steam is not used in reservoir processes. Saturated steam is used, and, as a result, pressure and temperature are intimately related, It is interesting that ‘the amount of heat required to generate steam is not a strong function of temperature and pressure, This is also indicated in Figure 19-6, The amount of heat that is required to change liquid into vapor (water into steam) changes with temperature as shown on the same diagram, Note that the heat of vaporization. or latent heat, varies about 15% over most expected SAGD tions operating con:Practical Reservoir Simulation Critical Point Pressure, psia Vapor Region * Liquid Region 200 300 400 500 Temperature, °F 600 700 Fig. 19-3 Phase Diagram for Steam Saturated Steam 10-06 | Enthalpy (m3hwater) sm | 00808 0.908400 © 1,000 2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000 6,000 7,000 9,000 Prossure kPa Fig [9-6 Enthalpy and Heat of Vaporization for Stearn Since this data is obviously of criti cal importance, reservoir simulators typically have steam properties builtin This knowledge is aeeded for setting well controls, Heat losses Steam injection results in considerable loss of heat down the wellbore and to the formation overburden and underburden The classic texts on thermal recovery deal with this issue in detail. Losses from around the well are calculated analytical: ly as well as the overburden and under- Durden heat losses. Thermal reservoir simulators are designed to handle these losses. Following the normal practice, these cab culations are done analytically outside of the reservoir grid. This requites a number of lines of input that give the required parameters for these heat loss calcula- tions. Normally the wellbore, overburden, and underburden are calculated separate. ly and have separate input Thermal conductivities AAs with conventional reservoir simu: lation, finding accurate input is critical. Thermal conductivities will vary from area to area. Potential sources of data include the Canadian Heavy Oil Association Reservoir Handbook, the AOSTRA Technical Handbook on Oil Sands, Bitumens, and Heavy Oils, as well as the appendices to Roger Butler's book, Thermal Recovery of Oil and Bitumen 4 Typically, the SPE mono- graphs have considerable useful data in the appendices, and there is a Thermal Recovery monograph by Michael Prats ‘The latter is oriented to steam flooding and consequently has less data than sub: sequent publications. Finally, Thomas Boberg’s Exxon Monograph on Thermal Methods of Oil Recovery provides an excellent general background with very useful data in its appendices *Thermal conductivity is a function of the matrix and of the material filling the pore volume. In addition, it can be a function of temperature, The calculation of thermal conductivity can be done arithmetically or by correla: tions. Tivo correlations are used: correlation of Anand, Somerton, and Gomaa” correlation of Somerton, Keese, and Chu* Heat capacity ‘AS with thermal conductviyy the different compo- nents of the reservoir within a grid block have different heat capacities, The rock matrix has a different heat capacity from that of water, steam, gas, and/or ol present inthe pores. The total heat capacity can be calculated by adding the capacities volumetrically Enthalpies Enthalpy (H = U + PV) is used in heat calculations within the simulator. Enthalpy is determined by a poly. nomial approximation. Most programs have defaults tor ‘common components; however, itis possible t0 input ‘custom components or change the correlation. Note that the correlations for the vapor and liquid phases are entered separately: Thermal Reservoir Simulation vapor phase less the enthalpy in the liquid phase Therefore, the system can be ovexietermined. The man ner in whictt the data is entered will control how the cal- culation is actually made. Solution gas Most bitumen contains relatively litle solution gas. As result, most preliminary SAGD modeling did not include solution gas in the formulation af SAGD reservoir simulations. Its fair to say that solution gas recovery in heavy olls is relatively low The later isa large function of oil viscosity. The lower viscosity heavy oils will ave high- er primary recovery factors. This is shown in Figure 19-7 Data is available that provides some heavy ol solution 2S heat capacities. The purpose of this work was aimed at providing background information for fre flooding ® ‘A number of other important implications with respect to solution gas include: In cold bitumens. tis not clear if significant gas would migrate through the high-viscosity bitumen. In conventional heavy oil recovery.G.€.Smith proposed the concept of foamy oil to explain some of the observed viscosity characteristics. Considerable research has followed on foamy oil flow" Heat of vaporization Itis possible to enter the heat of vapor 29 ization from correlations. Two correlations dy include Watson’ correlation as shown in . oy Equation 19.1 and the correlation of Reidal shown in Equation 19.24 $8 & AH, l we , _ 1,092(In P, -1.013) i ’ Sect be R 0930-7, q g : i. Bg Cron “oF s A Iota ‘Morichal,Roqueven 4 aH, (iT, 092) dl —_— - J Enthalpies and heat of vaporization are related. The heat of vaporization is equal to the difference between the enthalpy in the it Viscosity in cp at Rezervoit Conditions. Lod. Fig, [9-7 Viscosity of Diferent Reservoirs at Reservoir Tortperature ‘ond éect on Recovery > a7Practical Reservoir S, mulation Some of this research does not suppor the exis tence of foamy oil but does suggest that emul- sions are formed. The new interpretation has been obtained as the result of using large pore net works in detailed laboratory experiments For the SAGD process, gas evolution affects ther mal conductivity outside of the steam chamber, and the evolved gas collects at points where it may affect the loss of heat to the overburden (methane has a low thermal conductivity). tt is possible to introduce other noncondensible gases, such as nitrogen, to accomplish this same effect Some of the earlier modeling of the SAGD process Indicated that better history-match results were obtained if solution gas was not included. The implica- tions were that the solution gas was not detected in the steam chamber and insufficient methane gas was pres et to indicate that gas was being evolved from the sur rounding bitumen Equilibrium ratios Although itis possible 10 model reservoirs on a chem ical species basis using compositional simulation and an equation of state, this is too time-consuming for thermal simulation. The relative amounts of the various species (uch as methane, propane, butane, pentane, etc.) in each phase (for instance gas or liquid) are therefore determined using equilibrium ratios or & values The manner in which the & values are determined varies considerably. One method isto use asophisiicated form of a table lookup based on temperature, pressure, and extensive laboratory data. This can be very accurate. ‘Thete are simplified estimates of equilibrium ratios based on thermodynamics. Alternatively a well-defined proce- dure is outlined in the GPSA data book that is based on. temperature, pressure, and composition utilizing conver: gence pressures. ‘The methodology utilized in the thermal models that ARE has used are based on a lower level form of inputting equilibrium ratios Temperature-dependent viscosities The whole point of thermal recovery isto obtain the reduction of bitumen viscosity at higher temperatures, It is no surprise that this needs to be input in a table of vis cosity versus pressure, The viscosity of heavy oils varies so much that experimental data is required. Having said this, the data that is usually obtained does not cover the entire range of temperatures and pressures, Tne viscosity of heavy oils is most strongly dependent on temperature, as shown in Figure 19-8, Therefore, the nor imal practice is to use a linear extrapolation on a logiog plot to determine viscosity ‘Abasand 108 Bitumount Nos. 2, 3 Ells River 105 é Bitumount No. 4 E 104} > 403} 4 yo2 Mean J Bitumount No.1 rob 4 L 1 - 25 (125 ~«SSCS ‘Temperature (°C) Fig, 19-8 Viscosity of Athabasca Bitumen from Difrent Areas Data input, as with PVT and relative permeability data, utilizes a table lookup function. The user must input a table of temperature and viscosityHigh-temperature viscosities At higher temperatures. for example with the Athabasca bigamen, the last points can deviate from a straight line, as sown in Figure 19-D. 108 107} 10 2 20 100 200 300 Temperature (°C) Fig 19-9 Mean Viscosity of Athabasco Bitumen This suggests thatthe trends may always be curved of pethaps, below 100 cp cold viscosity. this reduction is attenuated with further temperature increases. Stil, the majority of viscosities are measured assuming the straight: line relation, and itis common to see measurements of viscosities at three different temperatures to confirm and utilize the (perhaps incorrect) straightine relationship. mal Reservoir Simy/ation Field viscosity data Figure 19-10 shows some samples that ARE assern: bled from northeastern Alberta. One of the wells showed properties that seemed to fall into two difter ent groupings. Some lavers ft the first grouping, while ‘others fit the second grouping. Surprisingly, the two groupings seemed to occur otherwise randomly from different sands Note that great Variation exists in viscosity relation: ships. It has become common to use the viscosity rela tionship from he UTF in many SAGD simulations. While this is good data, its applicability is unlikely ubiquitous. Then agaia, the variations from this relationship may be emtirely related to oxidation, Viscosity sampling The more prudent will ealize immediately that testing the entire temperature range is a very good idea before designing a project requiring hundreds of millions of dok lars of capital. (The author has a copy of an application to the Alberta government for such a project where the coperatar did not have leasespecific data.) In truth, this is more difficult chan one might think Since the bitumen doesi't low, itis not possible to put the well on production and simply measure viscosity. The best way seems to be extracting the bitumen from core This isa destructive process and means the bitumen must be taken from the core either by heating or chemical extraction with a solvent ‘Oxidation tris known that the viscosity of bitumen varies with the degree of oxidation, An example for Athabasca bitu men samples is shown in Figuze (9-1! (from page 166 of the AOSTRA Tecfnical Handbook on Oil Sands, Bitumens, and Heavy Oils) Therefore, itis important to analyze the samples quickly and take the appropriate precautions to minimize oxidation. This makes interpretation of existing viscosity data much more exciting, since it seems that the details of sampling and sample handling often are not included in lab reports > asPractical Reservair Simulation 1.900000 Various Bitumen Samples and Locations 1.900000 Viscosity,

435Practical Reservoir Simulation on . AP API ov ¥ 06 3 t . Eos 5 24° APL z 2 Fou o2 oo ° e 2 08 ae cry Observed Oll Volume, Fig. 19-15 Coking Corrections The volume and weight ofthe total sample is meas- ured first, Ths can be done by a variety of methods. Tae oil and water are extracted by using toluene as a solvent as well as heat. This is done with an electric heater, for safety reasons. The water is condensed and measured in a graduated container, Note that this measurement is, made at a specific temperature. At high temperatures, water is driven olf from clays and other minerals. Since the specific gravity of water and the bitumen are known, the volume of oil ean be calculated by subtraction For additional mones the volume of oil can also be measured. Common sense indicates that this should result in a carey mess lef in the sample and that the solume of oil recovered from the con denser will be less than the volume of bitumen that was originally in the sam. ple. Tiss, infact, the ease. The volume Of oil is adjusted Sy cooking known vol- umes of the bitumen and toluene and determining a correction factor. An example of such correction factors is shown in Figure 19-15.'2 Some of the descriptions indicate that the total volume of the sample is deter cnined by immersion in mercury, and this will compensate for the gasfilled portion of samples. Normally mercury immersion destroys samples. Some references seen by the author say this does not present a problem and the mercury can be recov: ered in the extraction process. Mercury vapor is highly poisonous—2t least according to the spy novels, The labs vis: ited by the author usualy have watery col mixtures on top of the mercury cok lection trays to stop vaporization Determining correct saturations from logs and calibrating to core Woodhouse describes the correct method of calibrating logs and core." As Ys acommon theme in this book, much of the problems with reservoir simulation have litle do with the actual simulator ‘The problem, more often than not, is get ting the correct input data The basic assumption is simple. Relatively ite bitumen is displaced from the core due to its high viscosity. The author questions whether this is completely true;some litle bubble of evolved gas is going to cause a spur of bitumen, The oil actually shrinks with gas exsolution, soit will have shrunk about 1-2%. In prac: tical terms, these are tolerable errors. The log calcula- tions then are tuned to weight percent bitumen,The ertors in core attalysis saturations io not affect the correct calculation of original vil in place. The increased porosity compensates for the filtrate invasion in cores. This does become sig nificant, however, in thermal recovery caleulations—ie,,simulations—where the extra connate water must be heated as part of the process. Therefore, it is important wo get the actual porosities and water saturations correct. One ther significant item should be mentioned. AS shown in Figure 19-16, uncemented formations typical ly have lower values of m, the cementa: tion exponent in the Archie equation."* Itis also known that n. the saturation exponent, normally follows m, This can be confirmed in a number of ways. A log analyst can use a Pickett plot on a waterbearing zone to empirically determine i. In addition, itis possible to have the sands tested under overbur- den conditions. The following are some actual field results determined by experiment on cores obrained from the Hangingstone area. Examples of this data are shown in Figure 19-17 and 19-18, The porosity and saturation exponents from the com- plete series of tests were tabulated in Table 19-1 The tests were conducted at overbur den pressure, Since these cores do not fully recover from dilations, the: lower water zones from the adjoining oil sands leases were analyzed by ARE using a Pickett plot. An in situ value of 1.35 was determined form for this area, This value is consistent with the lower range of the data in Table 19-1, The following caleu- lation was based directly on the core data, Note that t cannot be determined from a Pickett plot Reservoir Simy Therma ps Porosity 0% Fig 19-16 Generalized Variation of Formation Resistivity Factor with Cementation Table 19-1 Cementation (m) and Saturation (n) Exponent Values from Various Athabasca McMurray Formation Sand Special Core Tests Welt m n 5-13-84-11W4M 1.45 181 4-15-84-12W4M 147 1.70 15-.20-84-11W4M 1.35 181 1429-84-11W4M 1.36 1.70 13:27-84-11W4M 1.38 1.83 Average 1.40 itPractical Reservoir Simulation Fig. 19-17 Formation Resistivity actor em —Actual Lab Dara Sp = axRw/g"xRe 92a) 52 = (10x0853)/ ((0.30)2 x 105.31) (19.2) = 300% = (10x 0853) / (0.30)! 105.31) cise) Se = ITN% Therefore if. were incorrectly assumed, then the S,, would have been 30% instead of 17.1%, Using the revised values of m and n will significanty reduce the cal culated in sit water saturations Air permeabilities The standard design process for SACD was devel oped on the UTF projects. The predictions of perform- ance were based on core permeabilities derived direct- ly from air permeabilities on dilated cores. From the viewpoint of a conventional reservoir and simulation 198 < Fig, 19-18 Formation Resistivity Factor n—Actual Lab Data engineer, this approach is wrong on the face of it Interestingly one of the statements Irom an earlier paper (SPE 21529) is most telling: Prior to Phase A operations, in-house opinions of what the bulk effective venticat permeability ofthe formation woul prove to be ranged over wo orders of magnitude, resulting in correspondingly varied estimates of economic viability. The central abjective of Phase A test was to resolve this uncertain- 1y by direct measurement of the SAGD rate in @ minimal volume of reservoir'® Given these comments, itis indeed fortunate that the pilot went forward, The substantive contingent of geot echnical engineers and the extensive geomechanical instrumentation suggests that the use of higher than Lndisturbed liquid permeabilities was not accidental, Note that substantial experience in the area of cyclic steam injection also supports allowance for the effects of dilation on permeabilityLiquid permeabilities soe There is experimental data available that shows the difference between liquid and air peemeabilties. Again, this data is trom Hangingstone, This suite of data is unusually complete. i includes. perme- abiliy or cleaned and uncleanesamples and both air and liquid permeability data. The liquid peemeabiliies were deter — mined at net overburden pressure (NOB) A simulated overourden pressure of 5000 kPa was used ‘Tee are two factors 19 consider in evaluating the eects of NOB > Normally. horizontally dled plug is placed vertically ina taxi al apparatus The fective pressure applied surrounds the entire sam- ple, eved in what would be the ver- tical sides ofthe core plug AS a result, NOB tests ‘ypically provide stresses that are haher than that which woud actualy exist in the ground Consequently, NOB tests tend to report lower per sveabily than they should Most unconsolidated samples do not behave elas tical Hence, aot al ofthe unloading effects are replicated by reloading the sample Typically the grains do not return to as compacta form as they would have been in sit To some degree. these swo factors may cancel out however, it is not easy to estimate which factor domi- nates. Thus, some care (educated guess) must be used in interpreting these results The experimental results are shown on Figure 19-19. In total, 25 plugs were tested for liquid permeability The associated air permeabilities are alsa shown on the plot. The center ofthe grouping of the dark diamonds is locat ed in the same position as seen on previous plots of air core permeability versus core porosity. The light squares cleatly show the difference in permeability measured with liquid and with overburden pressure. The ratio Of kyy/iggy has been plotted on Figure 19-20, As can be seen from the histogram, the average correction factor willbe in the range of 0.25 t0 0.30, The arithmetic average was calculated to be 0.249, This is a Useful indicator of how much conection should be applied to core air permeabilities to derive in situ reser voir permeabilities. satno8 oh, iquid er core Porosity traction Fig, 19-19 Net Qverburden (NOB) Liquid Permeabalt 1980 Faction oF Air Permeability Documented history matches (UTF Phase A and 8) did not utilize such corrections. It may be concluded that there must be some significant mechanism occurring ia the reservoir that causes air permeabilities to be repre sentative in SAGD modeling.” Geomechanical effects ‘The justification for the beneficial effects of geome chanics is based on: extensive documentation in the Hiterature laboratory results ‘numerical simulations field observations This combination must lead to the conclusion that oil sands reservoirs are being affected by geomechanical effects. A background explanation will be made of gec- mechanics in the following. Geomechanical literature Geomechanics jg not an area that is currently includ- ‘ed in standard petroleum engineering programs. This isa classic area witere crossdisciplinary understanding is critical, much like the link between reservoir simulation and geology. Some university programs have combined these two disciplines, The following list follows up on ear lier references to literature on the subject and summa: rizes a portion of what is available. This material conces trates on simulations.440 < cal Reservoir Simulation Espinoza and Mirabel (1988) used geomectnics to simulate com paction and subsidence associat ed with heavy oil reserirs in Venezuela, There is considerable expertise within POVSA with regard to geomechanics Untortunatel only a small par of the Spanish iterature is translated." Abou Kassem and Faroug Al (1985) recognized the need fora. coupled reservoirigeomechanics model." Later Tortike and Faroug Ali (1991) described their attempts to predict numeriéally the failure of oil sands due to steaminduced stresses. They constructed a 3D stearnwateroilgas model incorpo- rating geomechanies Plastic strains and volumetric strains were found to increase the permeability and porosity ofthe materia Tonite, Faroug Ali etal (1994) used their model to simulate Number Of Occurenes cyclic steam stimulation? ° ‘A model for oil sands production was developed by Wan et al (1989) to describe the effective stress train behavior of oil sands. Although the model was devel oped for casing/formation interaction studies, ithad applicability to other geomechanics problems since it incorporated thermal effects and strain softening with dilation at low confining stresses.* Yaziri (1985) developed another model, which could be calibrated with existing geomechanical laboratory tests." Beattie et al, (1991) and Denbina et al. (1991) utilized a porosity dilation model coupled to a permeability enhancement algorithm to implic- itly model prescribed deformation regions (Gimulating dynamic horizontal fractures) in cyclic steam stimulation (CSS) history matches of Ess05 Cold Lake wells. These firsttime suc- cesses at Cold Lake history matching were largely attributed to the approach of using a thermal reservoir simulator implicitly coupled Petro-Canada Hangingstone Special Core Overburden Kliquid v. Kair s 9 s ot se ° ° & s oe Kh liquid, NOB J Kh air Fig, 19-20 Ratio of 4 yoy/Kl ge Hangingstone Samples toa deformational model (relative permeabill ty hysteresis was also employed). This follows from the mechanistic observation from these studies that formation compaction is by far the dominant mechanism supplying drive energy to the early cycles of the CSS process; solution gas drive was the most important of the remaining mechanisms. Significantly, gravity drainage accounted for litte of the oil pro- duced in the first two cycles, but increased in importance subsequently? Chalaturnyk and Scott (1991) modeled the geo- mechanics of Phase A of the AOSTRA UTF pilot project. Thermal values from a reservoir simula tor were fed into a geomechanical model, ‘which used the temperatures to calculate an equivalent single-phase hydraulic conductivity. ‘They found that, for multiwell patterns, zones of scant staan inlfailure within the cold reservoir might occur between the well pairs, rather than near an injector or producer well Settai et al. (1992) examined the geomechanical aspects of fluid injection into oil sands for the PCES cyclic steam stimulation project. Dilation in the fracture failure region was identified as one of the critical design parameters The result was a ‘combined laboratory and simuiation study to determine the compressibitiy and dilation values for numerical simulatic Singhal et al. (1998) discussed the effect of forma- tion dilation during steam injection if some threshold pressure was exceeded in the forma- tion During production, thedetormation was not entirely reversed. Etfective permeabilities were increased, enabling largerthan-expected injectivi- ty and productivity:” Satriana et al. (1998) modeted an Indonesian steamflood and demonstrated that oil recovery can be accelerated due to increased injectvity because of dilation.A coupled reservoir/geome- chanics simulator was used. Results showed per- meability enhancement caused by reduced effec tive stress forall injection cycles. Field measure ments from tiltmeters were used to back calculate increases in reservoir porosity.and these had increased from 33% t0 a porosity of 38%.A history match showed the existence of permeability enhancement due to the reduced effective stress and limited fracturing in later injection cycles. Yuan et al, (1999) developed a model tor worm: hole propagation in cold production from heavy oil reservoirs. These seiteroding cavity channels in poorly consolidated sanidstones are responsi- ble for the unusually high productivity of wells, Daily production rates are generally proportional to the cumulative sand production, indicating the ‘wormholes continuously propagate farther into the reservoir’? Dusseault et al. (1994) addressed the geome- chanics of the wormhole phenomenon, as well as the growth of a remolded zone of dilated material around the wellbore. Both resulted in sand production. They recognized the coupling of sand geomechanics with fluid flow models as being at the forefront of engineering in the oil industry." Taerma!l Aeservoir Simulation Shen, (2000) of imperial Oil conducted a suinercal investigation of SAGD process using a single horizontal wel, He included a dilated zone around a horizontal well witha rokicedt eapllary pressure (more on this isue late) att enhanced permeability A parametric sensitity was done on diferent geomechanical properties Oil rates were found to be five times greater than forthe base case without any dilation. Ito, Ichikawa.and Hirata (2000) examined the SAGD steam chamber growth atthe UTE Phase 8 ‘and Hanigingstone Phase [ projects: ito et al. di further work at Hangingstone, such as resolving anomalous thermocouple readings by including a high-permeabilty zone laterally from the injection well JACOS has used high steam injection pressures of 3,000 kPa withthe intention of causing the ol sands to fail in shear Steam chamber rise rates were significanty higher at Hangingstone than at the UTEEaty growth was reported 1 be 1,0 mfday as compared to 0.1 infday atthe UTEThe authors interpreted this to be due to geomechanical effects. to et al. (2002) concluded that elevated operating pressures. as high asthe facture pressure. appear to be required to achieve feasible growth of the SAGD ‘steam chamber. AicLellan et al. (2000) used geomechanics to study the caprock integrity of the SAGD process, rather than the SAGO process itself. Here,a cou- pled reservoirgeomechanical simulation was done to examine breakthrough by steam theough a caprock intersected by a weak discontnuity* Wong and Li (2000) developed a stressdlependent model for permeability changes in oil sands due te shear dilation. Their model dfs from other approaches in that they predict the permeability ‘changes in one direction under continuous shearing, The results an anisotropic perm- eability change. Settari, Walters, and Behie (2000) described their geomechanical reservoir modeling of diverse problems such as injection into oil sands,com- paction problems inthe North Sea,and brine dis posal They concluded that geomechanical mod- eling was feasible on a full field scate.* Denbina et al. (2001) concluded that geomechan- ical effects were essential in matching foamy oil Dehaviorusing permeability enhancements oarPractical Reservoir Simulation (made functionally dependent on local pressure drop in the simulator) #0 provide a realistic method to model wormhole growth. They also found that suppressing gas relative permeability to simulate gas entrainment—was essential in abating pressure decline and maintaining a high overall system compressibility.” Geomechanical behavior Oils sands ate a frictional material; ie. they derive their mechanical strength from the frictional resistance ofthe sand grains. Because they are uncemented by cal careous of siliceous adhesions at sand grain contact points, they are extremely weak when unsupported by a confining stress. The bitumen, being a highly viscous fluid, is unable to provide any strength other than under rapid loading, Coffee test (confining stress) ARE uses an effective demonstration during presenta- tions. A vacuum packed package of ground. coffee is used, The grounds are a granular material and the vacu ‘um packing provides a confining stress of atmospheric pressure, Vacuum packed coffee is generally packaged in a form similar to a brick. Most people can stand on one of these bricks. There will be some deformation with a person standing on it;however, if you take a pair of scissors, ora knife, and puncture the package, the “brick” will immediately collapse into a loose pile of ground coffee that cannot support any weight ‘without deforming completely. This isthe effect of confining stress. Effective stress Since the oil sands are a frictional material, its strength is highly dependent upon the effective confining stress. Effective stress is the portion of the total stress in excess of the fluid pressure. o=0-p (193) where o' =effective stress c= total stress luid pressure a2 < The general concept is shown in Figure 19-21, Stress isa vector quantity therefore for the three principal stress €5, 6, 6,6, there are three effective stesses, oo! 6, Strength and stiffness are functions of the effective con. Fining stress, o', As the effective confining stress increas- es, the strength and stiffness also increase, Soil mechanics The content of these comments is related directly to the response of oil sands to loading and relies on con: cepts developed in soil mechanics. Since this Feld of study is unique to civil and geological engineering, a brief description has been provided. interlocked structure ‘The fundamental control of petmeability is the struc ture of the sand. In ¢ypical biturnen deposits, the sands are fine grained and the grains af sand are deposited with the long axes of the grains lying horizontal. In ny cases, the structure of the sand has been the result of deep burial in the past, rather than glaciation, and results in compaction and some diagenesis. The net result is that the sand structure consists of a matrix of interlocked grains. ig, 19-21 Concept of Etective Sess ans asta a lkWhen subject to loading, the possibie intergranular behavior includes: grain overice grain shearing ‘grain rotation Srain compaction/expansion Because of this granular structure, these noncement ‘ed (unconsolidated) sands do not have any substantive tensile strength, Further, determining the bulk properties ‘of granular material requites that the original structure of the grains not be disturbed. This requires that samples be carefully obtained and handled, ‘To date, nv reliable methodology has been developed to reproduce the same sand grain structure once it has been disturbed. Material testing Methods were developed in civil engineering to quan- tify the strength of unconsolidated samples. The 10 methods developed were the direct shear apparatus and the triaxial cell. Basic depictions of these two apparatus fs are shown in Figures 19-22 and 19-23." Drained and undrained tests ‘These tests can be run in two fundamentaly diferent ways. in the First method, pore fluids are allowed (© escape. which is termed a drained test. in the second method, the pore fuids are not aliowed to dissipate. This istermed an undraiged test. This has a profound effect on the bebavior of the tested materials In an undrained test, ore pressures will initially support the majority of the incremental load, In a drained test, sufficient time is allowed forthe pore pressures o dissipate during loading The speed of drainage is a function of permeability Typical responses The results from these types of tests are shown in Figure 19-24 on the upper lett side. The testis controlled by strain, and the Joads are read from a strain cell. Otherwise, samples will explode if controlled ty load when the material softens, Note that # represents stain, which is horizontal for the fitst apparatus and vertical (axial) for the second apparatus. In a similar fashion, the Ab represents either vertical dilation or circumferential dilation for the two different apparatuses respectively. In the generalized figures, a clear distinction is made between loose and dense sands. The dense sands show a peak behavior, ater which their load-bearing capacity is hermat Reservoir Simulation reduced. Lanse sands do not show a loss in peok steer. Before complete shear failure can take place, the inter locking of sand grains incense sand must be overcome it addition to the frictional resistance atthe point of contact After a peak stress is reached, at a low value of shear dis placement, the degree of interlocking decreases. and the shear stress necessary to conttinue shear displacement is reduced. This is termed strain softening Dilation The lower diagram un the left sie shows the changes in volume, which result from shearing and dilation. The structure of dense sands expands, which has the effect of increasing porosity and perteability. The loose sands contact with strain, which has the effect of lowering porosity and permeability. Failure envelope Muitiple tests can be combined to determine a failure envelope, as show on the right side ofthe diagram. Tas is termed a MohrCoulomb failure envelope. This materi al is also presented in Figure 19-25. Alternate representation of failure envelope Mohr’ circle can be used to define stress as a combi- nation of shear and normal stresses for any plane. By using the properties of this relationship, itis possible to represent the site of stress with a single point. The co»: struction is shown Figure 19-26. The left oF yaxis is p” and the lower or xaxis is the average stress. By using this constnuction, a stress cond tion can be described with a point rather than with the complete Mohr’ circle. This technique makes it easy to plot the stress history (path) of samples or points in a reservoir simulation, Stress path testing ‘The testing techniques described previously are usu- ally conducted with a constant confining pressure. Itis possible to conduct testing under different stress paths by varying the confining pressure by computer control In this manner, the stess history of an element in aheavy oll reservoir can be approximated. This type of triaxial testing was used in the Touhidi-Baghini thesis (1998).” In these cases, the vertical stress (9,") divided by the con- fining stress (a,’) can be plotted against axial strain, The maximum value of 6," is then considered to be the point of failure. vanPractical Reservoir Simulation Normal force Porous (or solid) plates al Loading plate Drain je \ LI : SAY} | ter fae fice, Drain Porous (or solid) plates: Fig, 19-22 Direct Shear Stress Apparatus Normal force (permeatity measurement) —— A Pressure port Porous er solid plate Rubber Le membrane 7 ydrosastic pressure Z| fr Drain or port for | Pressure measurement) 4 Volume change fav) measured rom hurd ‘volume expelled (at constant pressure) Fig. 19-23 Thaxial Cell Apparatus atc Constitutive models of sand behavior One of the major problems readily apparent from the previous desceiption is how to describe the physical behavior of these sands. The use of the Mohr Coulomb model to determine the failure point has been discussed. In fact, there are a qum. ber of different ways of describing how sands change. One model is called the elasticplastic model, another isthe hyper: bolic model. These two are the most com- mon methods used: there are, in fact, a thumber of others. which will not be dis- cussed in this text. These methods con ccentrate on bulk deformation of the sand and how much load can be carried However, for reservoir engineering purposes we are interested in a litle more. How does one tie the loads and the changing effective stresses (as a result of changing reservoir pressures) together with porosity and permeability? This is not easy, There are a number of ways to do this. One will be discussed in the following ‘A triaxial test apparatus can be modi- fied to simultaneously measure fluid flow through the failing specimen. In this man- net, permeability can be related to stress- es and axial and volumetric strains. Obtaining samples that are undisturbed canbe very difficult TouhidiBaghini (1998) and Scott (1997) studied the change in absolute permeability of oil sands while specimens were undergoing shearing. They tested a sample of sonbituminous MeMurray Formation sands excavated from a natural river outcrop. Specimens were obtained parallel and perpendicular to bedding An example of the permeability increase, relative to the initial absolute permeabil- ty is given in Figures 19-27 and 19-28% * At volumetric strains of 4%, roughly cor responding to the peak strengths of the samples, the vertical permeabilities increased by 100%. Some specimens had an increase in absolute permeability ofShear Stress vs. Lateral Strain Mohr Coulomb Failure Envelopes Volumetric t yo o Fig, 19-24 Shear Test Results Failure Envelope | }<—o; Fig, [9-25 MohrCoulomb Envelope 40-04) Modified Failure Envelope. _— S 3 Fig. [9-26 Allerative Representation of Mohe-Coulomb Fai Reservoir Simulatio Strain vs. Lateral Str ‘Stress Point a Hotrod o ure EnvelopePractical Reservoir Simulation one order of magnitude during the test Permeability increases were attributed to dilation and shearing, Dilation resulted in 2 pore volume increase and widened flow paths, and shearing increased pore connectivity, The horizontal/vertical permeability anisotropy was found to be a factor of 1.4. For a 2% volumetric strain, the vertical permeability increased by 40%, and the horizontal permeability increased by 20% This inctease in vertical permeability has extremely significant implications for the advance of the steam front in SAGD. Due to the unique sampling process used, this is probably the most accurate data available on how permeability varies with shearing. ‘The previous data considered the case where the bitumen is heated and may flow. However, shearing can occur in the cold bitumen. In this case the bitumen remains immobile, The change in the vol ume of sand and porosity still causes changes in fluid flow properties. According to the data of Oldakowski, which is shown in Figure 19-29, the per meability to water is also known to increase with shearing" This data differs from the previous data in ¢hat different sttess paths were used and these tests were performed at in situ cold reservoir conditions. The increase in water perme- ability is substantive with shearing, This leads naturally into a discussion of relative permeability Relative permeability ‘There is considerable debate inthe fit- erature regarding relative permeability curves for bitumen reservoirs. There are a number of relevant issues whether the shape of the oil curve is convex or concave whether the curves are tempera- ture sensitive whether the curves are water or oil wet, which is reflected in the level of the water elative permeability 45 MO Experiment Ress. oxen Carman. 6.9 786 Chaaabeigg = 5.6) = 1475 Con 59 , tna Fig, 19-27 Effect of Shear on absolute Vertical Permeability Moe experimental Rest Gu Cchardabels, Chacaabelas ek iit. ————- nit ‘Fig, 19-28 Effect of Shear on Absolute Horizontal Permeabilityat the residual oil sat aration end-point as as the value of 10 he irredue saturation whether there a ple water teresis eltects associa ed with changes front drainage to imbibition Requirements for accurate relative permeability data Obtaining accurate data is very difficult and expen sive, There ate a number of fundamental problems The tests must be run at high temperature Lo Hong states that the . s most important area for performance pre: diction is the high pressure gascil rela Live permeability For accurate measurement of residual oil saturation to steam, both inlet and outlet must be maintained at wet steam condi tions. his is certainly consistent with the observa tions from the Flangingstone hot watersteam flood test For unsteady state tests, maintaining such con- ditions does not represent a long period and temperature drit is more easily controlled However. the procedure for steady state tests takes considerable time and maintaining con- sistent conditions is more difficult. Therefore, most tests are done as unsteady state tests Displacement (unsteady) tests do not measure relative permeability directly and require con- siderable inerpretation Some ofthese interpretation methods are graphi- cal, which can be quite sensitive to make correct- ly and can create substantial error More recently. there isa trend to use numerical simulation to his tory match relative permeabilities, Unfortunately it is necessary to assume the shape of the curves in this process, which is one of the unknowns. In fact, this methodology results ir multiple sol 8 fective Permeabiiy to Wake, un? incopse Unioeding 2 Pore Peer Injection yo 1S 20S 88 ‘Water Saturation, % Fig. 19-29 Ettect of Shear on Water Permeability —Oldakowski tions, Steady state data is substantially superior, but itis expensive. Such tests probably represent less than onethird of the available data Capillary presstire end effects can distort relative permeability curves, There are two solutions to this. First, use longer core samples, and second, use high displacement rates. Normaliy.the high rates required are significantly above reservoir displacement rates, which can lead to unrepresen: tative data and to viscous fingering. The later is a significant issue for heavy oils. ‘Weutability is also an important issue. Cores need to be cut with bland drilling mud systems. Further, when dealing with noncemented cores, great care ‘must be taken to ensure that disturbance is mini- mized and that the loading conditions will be replicated. This includes overburden loading and effective stress changes. ‘The chemistry of the oit, particularly the polarity of the components, can also have a strong effect on relative permeabilisy Good quality ive samples—i.e,, with solution gas entrained—are required. DunPractical Reservoir Simulation Itis impossible to solve all of these conditions at once, although one can design around the majority of them. Such a program is very expensive and rarely done, Three-phase relative permeability ‘Ypically. thtee-phase relative permeability has been calculated using a correlation. The correlation is a variant of those developed by Stone. Although a standard prac tice, the correlations have been assembled based on a limited number of available data sets. None of these included heavy oil samples. Abou-Kassen and Faroug Ali make the following comments Trreephase relative permeabilities are the Achilles heel of reservoir simulation. This is more so for thermat simulation. Relative permeabilities measured in the laboratory ‘are questionable in the light of instability the ‘ory (viscous fingering). Frequenthy the rela: tive permeabilities become a history match parameter The laboratory value of end points are still of value, In thermal simula. tion, the temperature dependence of relative permeability should be taken into account. ‘The same can be said of hysteresis. In many cases, two-phase relative permeability data 4 used in some variation of Stone's model to oblain threephase relative permeabilities Myhill has refered to the problem of obtain. ing the low oil saturations behind the steam front using Stones model. Once the end points are obtained, it is easy to use the Naar WygatHenderson equations. Kaeraie gives a modified version of these, suggesting that one way of including temperature dependence is to make the end points in the equations temperature dependent. Relative permeability hysteresis should be included in the simulation of cyclic steam stimulations. This can be accomplished in several ways; a simple approach was discussed by Bang. Sato has discussed the role of relative per ‘meabilties on thermal simulation." Again, the low saturations behind the steam front sug- 4gest that the gas- (including steam) bitumen relative per- -meabilty set is critical to residual saturations, aaa < Laboratory scale modeling Butler and Chow used straightiine pseudo relative permeability curves to history-match some lab experi meats. Their conclusions indicated that SAGD simula tion was insensitive to the choice of relative permeabili ty curves. They referenced Dake in the development of these curves The key assumption in the use of the VE technique is that the height of the capillary pressure transition zone is much smaller than the vertical dimension of the grid block, Although most capillary pressure lab data over. estimates the thickness of transition zones, most logs indicate transitions that are at least one meter thick Since the capillary transition zone is the same size as the grid blocks (particularly for a lab experiment), it was inappropriate to use segregated relative permeability ‘curves, Dake outlines the use of pseudo relative perme ability curve development with finite capillary pressure transition zones. Many ofthe water bitumen relations are quite straight in comparison to conventional light oil relative perme ability curves. In this case, the history match likely worked simply because the curves closely resembled what the lab curves would have looked like—had they been obtained. Sasaki, Akibayashi, Yazawa, Doan, and Faroug Ali experimented with different relative permeability curves to match some of their scaled laboratory models. AS shown in Figure 19-30, they found that the shape of the steam chamber was strongly atfected by the choice of rel ative permeability curves. Their work utilized a number of different assumptions. They strongly disagreed with Butler and Chow's conclusions that SAGD is insensitive to the choice of relative permeability curves. The varying shape of the chambers would make this point obvious However, their best match utilized straightline curves. Again, this may represent rock properties. Its unfortunate that the latter authors did not sepa- rately investigate the effects on the gasbitumen and the waterbitumen curves, For conventional light oi! modeling, using straight: line curves will often work, is an accurate representa- tion of reservoir physics, and can be substantiated by detailed modeling with multiple layers. These curves, are rate sensitive and often do not apply in predictions At higher rates, segregation may not occur to the same degree, and the capillary pressure transition often is not accounted for in this process. It may be concluded that conditions for using VE should be proven before they are used for predictions.Thermal Reservoir Simulation (Pas Pee Te ERT HS [Fob Ea (a) (0) Numerical simulation temperature contours (at t= 550 min) with linear relative permeability functions {a) wath zero éndpoint saturations, (b) with non-zero endpoint saturations * Wy et id fl “i yf Temp interval = 7.9°C Numerical simulation temperature contours(at t = 550 min) with non-linear relative permeability functions ig, 9-30 Numerical Simulation Results with DiflerentShaped Relative Permeabiliy Curves > agPractical Reservoir Simulation Importance of relative permeability data Shen investigated the effects of capillary pressute, undulating horizontal wellbores, and the rates that would be obiained. In this study, the relative permeability curves used are as shown in Figure 19-31, This paper also dis cusses the Importance of countercurrent drainage and capillary imbibition pressure thresholds. Earlier work by Edmunds indicated that sufficiently high capillary imbi- bition pressures could prevent the SAGD process Earlier work by Adegbesan utilized straightline relative permeabilities, kKisman and Yeung modeled the Burnt Lake Oil Sands Lease. In this case, there was no experimental relative permeability or wettability data, They indicated that the UTF simulation was not particularly sensitive to relative permeability curves, However, they did conduct sensitiv. ites to relative permeability curve entt-points. The data they used is shown in Figure 19-32." They perlormed some different sensitivities with different shaped curves. The extent of all of the modifications is not clear However the use of Stone's relative permeability correla- tions was predicated on the k,, at the irreducible water saturation being equal te 1, Othenwise, unpredictable va: 10 & & Relative Permeability. k 02 tues may occur Overall, the effects of their various runs indicate changes from worst to best case of only However, they do not seem to have changed the shape of the curves greatly It should be noted that Kisman and Yeung used a very low gasbitumen residuat oil saturation In the finad analysis, it may be that geomechanics, numerical dispersion, and heterogeneity have more effect than the shape of the relative permeability curves, in ARES experience, one thing stands out—the water rel ative permeability end-point is increased significantly. In conventional reservoir simulation, this is usually the effect of layering. Pseuco relative permeability curves are easy to generate for history matching. Unfortunately they are not transferable from one reservoir simulation to another and are of limited to no use for predictions. tis, always better to model the heterogeneities directly in the model with quantitative reservoir characterization, Ik should also be pointed out that, in his textbook, Butler notes that he has observed fingering at the top of, steam chambers, and this displacement is very likely to WateriLiquid Saturation 5.1 Fig, 19-31 Relatwe Permeability Data Used by Shen 450 <Thermal Reservoir Simulation tive Permeability 02 04 06 08 10 Water Saturation 04 08 08 10 Water Saturation Fig. 19-32 Relative Permeability Curves Used by Kisman and Yeung > 45!ctical Resesvoir Simulation be unstable. This would be reflected in relative perme: ability curves that are history matched. The sides of the chamber appear to be inherently stable, Relative permeability data available There is a range of data outlined in a number of text- books on classic heavy oil reservoir engineering 452 < i IFP shows a nutaber of curves.all of which are waterwet samples, Most of these are for cemented sanrstones. These curves are shown, in Figure 19-33." Exxon (Boberg) showed some curves used as demonstration examples and analyzes the sensi- tivity to different curves. ese are shown in Figure 19M. Exxon’s data also includes gascoil relative permeability curves! Gravdrain (Butler's textbook) showed curves for ‘cemented samples. as shown in Figure 19-3555 Butler also showed some changes in relative per meabilty related to temperature. Note that not all fein merge researchers agree on this point It is quite possible that some samples are temperature sensitive while others are not Maini and OXazawa showed relative permeability cures for silica sand that was packed into 3 core holder These are shown in Figure 1936.1 this case, they inferred temperature sensitvit: However these were unsteady state tess. The enc point saturations were also forced 10 a common salue, which may not be cue. They discussed many of the limitations of history-matehed rela tive permeability curves. Pulikar,Puttagunta, DeCastro.and Faroud Ali also investigated the shape of relative permeability cures in"Relatve Permeability Curve for Bitumen and Water in Oil Sand Systems” Their research used the steady state methodology and ‘a noncemented sample. They found convex oil relative permeability curves as shown in Figure 19487. Again, note the high ,, forthe wateroil curve without any steam present. They compared saa vote wares Fig. 19-33 (a, ) FP Heavy Oil Relate Permeabilcy DaraEffect of Temperature on Absolute Permeability lity at 20°C | © [alumina 027s | 446 O Fontainebleau Sandstone} 0.240 | 142 © Alumina 00% | 408 |G | alumina | oor | as z 2 2 | A | Fontainebleau Sandstone | 0.00 z Font pene 0000 é 25075 ~100~«3S~—~«SD~«S (c) Temperature,°C Effect of the Effective Stress on Porosity and Permeability at Two Different Temperatures T2212 _ T2217 Porosity 0, % Be Permeability, um? = T=93.8°C Ta938°C SS eoe 6 10 14 2 4 10 14 (d) Effective Stress, MPa (e) Effective Stress, MPa Unpublished data, Inet Frang du Patol, Fig 19.33 (¢-<) Heavy Oil Relative Permeability Data (Subsitiary Etects) eservair SimulationPractical Reservoir 10.0 001 ee 7 oF baa OF Relative Permeab| or a ae er.) Water Saturation, % PV Figure 49. Relative Permezbility Curves for Becea Sandstone Core (from Lo and Mungan 1973) Fig, 19-35 Relative Permeability Used by Butler Oil Recovery, PV Steam Flood Hot Water Flood 0 o¢ 08 12 16 20 Liquids Produced, PV RELATIVE PERMEABILITY "00 02 04 06 =e 40 WATER SATURATION Fig 19-36 Ternperanre-Dependent Relative Permeability From Maini and Okazawa© Bitumen ( multi—core | | (© Water ( multi-core } a Bitumen | single—cove ) | & Water ( singlecore } — Best Fit 0.6] tive Permeability = é 02 | 00 ao 02 04 O06 O08 10 Water Saturation Bitumen-water relative permeability curves <=. Lloydminster, run 7 ‘ Lloydminster, extracted core] Lloydminster, preserved cove oa 08 081.0 Water Ssturation Normalized heavy oil-water relative Permeability curves trom experiments ‘ig, 19-37 Experimental Curves From Polikar, Puttagunte, DeCastr, ‘and Faroug A hermal Reservoir Si the shape derived for a number of other different experiments This underscores the degree of vara, tion found in tests 8. Donnelly used the curves shown in Figure 19-38 forthe Hilda Lake SAGD project. His predictions were outstanding using this data The initial water saturations were very high, apparently with no nega tive effect on oil production. His 5, on the gastiquid relative perme ability was very iow,which, as described previouslyis critical. His z,, curve drops to zero at aS, of 30%, and his water relative perme- ability curve extends beyond the S,-This is somewhat unusual, as most, Curves would end at S,. However it would allow for simu taneous steam and water move- ments The end of the &,, curve appears to coincide withthe likely end-point of the gasliquid relative permeability curve Unfortunately, only two sets ofthe pre vious data included gasditumen relative permeability curves. Hangingstone steam flood test Earlier in the chapter, temperature dependence of relative permeability end points was discussed. Figure 19-39 shows results with these effects from the Hangingstone area of Alberta. Tis water flood/steam flood test dates frorn 1984, It was performed on a fresh state core plug as well as a companion sample. The com panion sample was used to derive conver tional reservoir properties, such as initial oil and water saturations. ‘The fresh state sample was placed in a hydrostatic core holder in a temperar turecontrolied oven, A temperature of 100° Celsius was used with a net overbur- den pressure of 600 kPa. This would be equivalent to a depth of approximately 300 meters.servair Simulation Practical f Water-oil Relative Permeability 000 010 02% 030 0M0 050 a 070 080 O80 100 (Water Saturation fraction) Gas-tiquid Relative Permeability 2 3 2 & Rete Penpenbiny (recto) & & 10 ono + 000 010 020 «0% 0m 08 «ae 070 08 080 1.00 quid Saturation (rection) Fig. 19-38 Relative Permeability Curves used by Donnelly for Hilda Lakeermal Reservoir Simulation Hangingstone Speciai Core Recovery During Hot Water / Steam Flood Test 300 ~ 250 z ts Q 200 }— 8¢ 2 | g2 > 180 | -— ps 5 $e £ 100 | . - 35 z | isseira ira | Be 50 0.4 0 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 Temperature (C°) Fig, 19-49 Nangingstone Steamlood Test Results ‘The sample was flooded with hat water at 100" Celsius and 4,900 kPa to residual oil, and the permeability was determined. The oven temperature was then raised to 150° Celsius, the sample was allowed to equilibrate, and was again flooded with hot water at 4,900 kPa, The pressure ‘was dropped to 450 kPa, and the sample was flooded with steam. The sample was flooded until oil production ceased and the permeability to steam was determined. Alternating water and steam was injected similariy at 200° Celsius with pressures of 4,900 kPa for steam and 1,500 kPa for water. This process was repeated once mote at 250” Celsius with injection occurring at 4,900 kPa for water and 3.900 kPa for steam, The results are outlined as follows: PS Péa 2S 120 793 5800mD 34.8% 6,190 mD_ 36.7% The residual saturations were determined by Dean Stark extraction. Following this, air permeabilities, porosi ty, and grain densities were determined. Finally the sam. ple was resaturated with water and a liquid permeability determined. Note that the companion sample saturations sum to 91.3% and not to 100%. With the summation of fluid method, only water and oil are measured. The likely source of the difference is air that had been imbibed in the core during unloading or gas that has been liberated from the bitumen. The sample on which the flooding was done was restressed, and this air or gas would most likely have been compressed out of the core. This makes the original in situ S, 13.1%, the $, 86.8%, and the S, 25.7%. Detailed analysis of recovery itis interesting to analyze closely the recovery associ- ated with the individual steps in the previous process Recall that there was an initial displacement with hot water, followed by three stages at different temperatures in which hot water was fist injected, followed by steam, Recovery data is summarized in Table 19-2. The water sweeps an increment of recovery of 208% of the OOIP At this temperature, Athabasca bitumen has a viscosity of more than 200 ep. When the temperature is, increased, the viscosity drops to about 60 cp, and the water is able to displace an additional 14.4% of the OOIP AA this point, flooding with steam atthe same tempera ture adds another 18.6%. Steam dramatically increases > 57Table 19-2 Summary of Water Steamflooding Test Results—Hangingstone Athabasca McMurray Sands Temperature| Phase | Pressure | Iefemental | Cumolative ] Percent | peemeabiity % Boa | Boe Voune | Bree Vole | 00% [nb 150, steam | 450 0.1480, 538 3140 2) [sean [2900] 0.00 wes recovery Increasing the temperature and Nlooding with water adds an additional 11.8% of OOH Switching to steam adds only a small increment of 4.8% A number of additional observations can be made, It seems that higher temperature steam adds to recovery up to 200° Celsius or 1,500 kPa Conversely, running a steam chamber below 1,500 kPa will decrease recovery. One consideration in SAGD design is heat losses. Lower tem peratures will educe heat losses. However, this evidently comes al the expense of recovery Temperatures above 200° Celsius and 3.900 kPa do not seem to add to recov. ery from a core flood point of view Another interesting observation is that the steam permeability increases from 321 mD to 465 mD when flooding is changed from 200 to 250° Celsius. Since there is no increment in recovery, it would seem that there should be no change in ol saturation. This is like- 'y an elfective stress effect, The intergranular pressures are reduced, withthe higher pore pressutes leading (0 lower effective stresses and higher permeability It is also clear that there is 2 large change in permeability between the steam and hot water. Note that permeabil- ily iS independent of viscosity, and, therefore, this would have to be a relative permeability effect. This would also indicate that ultimate recovery is more strongly affected by gas-bitumen relative permeability than waterbitumen relative permeability. History match relative permeability curves Much of the historical design procedure for SAGD projects was based on the work conducted at the UTE These curves have become widely used. Originally, the relative permeability relations used by AOSTRA were derived on what AOSTRA has described as general expe- rience. The author questioned a number of the people directly involved, and it does not appear that experimen: tal data was available. ‘The history-match curves are, in fact, nothing more than pseudo relative permeability curves, a topic that has been discussed extensively in this book. As such these UTF curves represent a number of different things including: ‘numerical dispersion lajering/heterogeneity viscous fingering capillary pressure transition zones production rates completion configurations geomechanical effects all in addition to the fundamental properties of the rock Of course, many of these factors are unique to the UTF project. Therefore, the use of these curves provides litle assurance that they are applicable elsewhere. This does not imply that the methodology used was incor rect. In fact, this was the limit of technology as it exist ed at the time. A conference paper by Polikar, Puttagunta, DeCastco and Faroug Ali summarized a number of relative perme: ability curves used jn simulation. The curves are shown in Figure 19-40. Note that there is considerable variation in the curves. The degree of history matching and the gridblock sizes are not outlined, However, it does serve 10 show the variation in curves used. It seems that some degree of skepticism is indeed warranted. = =~ Athabasca Toole Lake “Cold Lake ~Lleyemineter Tanabe 7, Relative Permeability of Water Saturation a0 ig, 19-40 Normalized Relative Permeability Curves Used in Simulation—Various Sources Choosing relative permeability curves Anumber of dificulties have been outlined previous- 'y As practicing reservoir engineers, a decision must be made, for better or for worse, Ia unique set of data can- not be identified, then a range o! sensitivities should be performed, It should also be noted that, despite many of these uncertainties, thermal reservoir simulation has proven to be capable of predicting the performance of SAGD projects. This is well-documented in the literature Relative permeability end-point— connate water Faced with the determination ofthe connate water sat uration end-point, ARE summarized a variety of different data sources as shown in the following: Hangingstone (an oltset reservoir) P Data 318%, aug 13% Hot Water/Steam Flood at Hangingstone 13% UTE (Offsetting Reserwoir) History Match 15% Polikar etal. (Technical Paper) Clean Sand 6% Log Analysis 1% hermal Reservair Simulati Maini and Okazawa (Paper) Clean Sand Bennion et al. Preserved Core (Ottset) Reservoir Band 58 Most connate water saturations on cemented rocks are higher, normally in the range of 25%. Although such curves have been discussed, they will not represent accu rately oil sands conditions of connate water saturations. ‘The most accurate data in our view is log analysis pre pared for the actual lease under study. ARE has rounded up the logderived S,. slightly to 15%, which is similar to the majority of existing models. Relative permeability end-point— residual oil saturation Folikar, DeCastro, Puttagunta, and Faroug Ali made an extensive study of noncemented sand in “Effect of Temperature on Bitumen-Water End-Point Relative Fermeabilities and Saturations” They found litle temper: ature effect. Note that the residual oil saturations in these tests, which do not include steam, were relatively high— averaging 46% Maini and Okazawa calculated all of their end-points at a residual oil saturation of 20%. Experimental end- points were not shown in their results Bennion, Sarioglu, et al. performed tests on stacked, preserved core material. In general, ARE has found that careful screening of stacked data in comparison to solid samples indicates core stacks are not reliable. The problem is the multiple capillary end effects that exist at sample junctures. This problem is exacerbated if the samples do not mesh exactly inside the core holder. Noncemented cores are less likely to cause this prob- lem because the material will mold. Their results indi cate waterbitumen residual saturations of 31.1% and 34.6%, respectively® Further guidance on this matter is provided by Faroug Ali/Butler (via previous Butler reference) as shown in Figure 19-41. Note that the bitumen viscosity of the Athabasca deposit is about 1.7 million cp at an initial reservoir temperature of 8-10" Celsius. This falls slightly off the diagram and to the left. There is no correlation between original reservoir bitumen viscosity at original reservoir temperature and residual oil saturation. There is a range or belt of values across the chart. Note that this is for a variety of steamfloods. Therefore, this would repre- sent the effects of various degrees of wateroil and gasoil relative permeability onPractical Reservoir Simulation 25 > 204 Aca z 2089) x ae S b esican (Paar ie pm aoe $y woh oe 3 « 1o® 101 10? 103 104 108 Oil Viscosity at Ty in ep Fig 19-41 Empirical Data of Residuat Ou! Saturation Butler has presented calculations that indicate the residual oft saturations are lower for the SAGD process than for conventional steam flooding. He estimates a typ ical steam chamber to have a residual oil saturation of 0.10 at 2,000 days, As outlined from the water floadisteam food sample ‘and other data, itis likely thatthe end-point saturation for gasbitumen and waterbitumen are quite different. There are other considerations here: The Stone Il phase relative permeability correla: tiom was designed with a consistent S,, In the SAGD process, fluid is tree to drain verticak 'y unlike the lab tests to which frontal advance calculations have been calibrated. In fact,the process probably takes place across a thin zone rather than at a sharp interface, This displacement zone is probably of the order ‘of one meter or less.This is less than the thickness, of a single grid block, Therefore, the process will ot be modeled using the one-meter grid blocks selected. The relative permeability curves have to account for this entire zone. Accordingly, in past simulations, ARE has assigned a single value for residual oil saturation for both the oi water and gas-il relative permeabilities. 459 < Steam-water relative permeability and capillary pressure Steamewater relative permeability is more complex than oilwater permeability in that there can be mass exchange between the two phases. Experimental investi gations of this have been done by Home and indicate that low interfacial tensions and/or mass exchange de occur 4 case can be made for comparison with ga condensate relative permeability where liquids drop out Of the gas, and this alters the formation of retative per meability curves, This topic was discussed earlier. Thus fa. there does not appear to have been much research in this area ‘The results of Horne contradict some earlier heavy oil steamflood testing and have also been applied or developed for geothermal research. These issues seem logical and, like the temperature dependence of relative permeability, there may not be uniform or consistent results Geomechanical effects on mudstones Geomechanical effects can be expected to occur in mudstones, As steam condenses on the underside of a mudstone, the hot water 1S free to penetrate the much stones. This is not analogous to trapping gas. Gas accu tmulations are trapped by capillary imbibition pressures not low permeability Steam would be a nonwetting phase. In fact, as outlined in Bachy and Undershuitz, caudstones and shales act as aquitards and are not barr ers to wetting phase flow—ie., water Since the water can penetrate mudstones. their per meability will also increase due to pore pressure effects as well as shear failure, These effects will be more pro- nounced where shear forces and dilation are the strongest, which normally would be near the injector, producer, and in the area directly above the wel pai. ‘There is also hot plate heating above mudstones, wich propagates by conduction. This reduces the viscos ity of the oil above the mudstone and eventually leads to bypassing ofthe barrier asthe oil becomes mobile. Probabiy the most convincing evidence ofthis was demonstrated in the AOSTRA UTF Phase A, where a mud- stone existed between the injector and the producer Communication was established and this, in ARES opin- Jon, represents structural changes to the mudstone fabric resulting from geomechanical effectsermal Reservoir Simulat Numerical Difficulties with Thermal Simulation Numerical diffculies with reservoir simulation for black oi models are relatively rare. This is aot true, at least vet, for thermal simulations, The following are trou ble spots the author has encountered. Grid-block requirements Thermal simullations are affected by the choice of grid size, as are conventional reservoir simulations. However, since the mectianism is somewhat different, SAGD sim lations requite much smaller grids than are typical for other processes. Based on sensitivities conducted by ARE, an optimal grid size is approximately 1 meter hori- zontally (j direction) by | meter vertically ( direction). In the cases described in the following, all simulations ‘were conducted with one SoOmeter grid block along the horizontal well (direction) There is @ noticeable amount of error associated with this grid spacing. The accuracy of output would be on the order of 10%. Figures 19-42, 19-43, and I-44 show a grid sensitivity Nine-point difference schemes Due to the high mobility of steam and the contrast with the low mobility bitumen, most thermal reservoir Simulators include nine-point difference scheines 10 con vol grid orientation effects, The fatter was discussed in chapter 2 of this book The implementations on the simufators used by the author pertnit nine-poiat differencing in only one plane. Fortunately the plane can be chosen as either ik or fe On some ofthe simulations, this seemed to have no effect an the execution time, One might expect the more complex difference scheme to increase run time. On the runs that the author examined carefully, the results appeared to be essentially the same. Interestingly. the largest difference seemed to be in improved material ba ance, which was of significant benefit. While the runs under discussion can hardly be called an exhaustive review, it does seem that the nine-point dit ferencing was beneficial. The results that were obtained ate shown in Figures 19-45, 19-46, and 19-47. The difer fences in material balance are shown in Table 19-3 = Steam-Cill Ratio —— Steam-Oil Ratio Steam-Oil Ratio (SOR), (injector)/(producer) INS (m?/m?) 20022005 30052008 —2007~—~=«2008~=~«OD Fig. [9-42 Grid Sensitivity team-Oil Ratio (SOR) op 8Practical Reservoir Simulation a ate So tay) $62 < 703 me m5 m8 or ‘ime (Oate) Fig, 19-43 Grid Sensitivity Production Rate and Water Injection Rate me 08 oe ae 75 27 Time (Oe) Fig, 9-44 Grid Sensitivity Cumulative Oil Production ae 8Material balances Obtaining low material balance errors is much mere dificult in thermal simulation, Normal black oil simul tions can usually obtain material balance errors of signit icantly tes that onesalf a percent and often in hun dredths of a percent, The thermal simulations that involved gas and water legs often involved material bal- ance errors in the 1-2% range. The simulation vendor felt this was within technical norms, The author was able to achieve better results with just bitumen and water but no overlying gas, Thermal simulations generally are not as stable and have more difficulty in achieving convergence. ‘Thermal shock fronts move convectively, unlike pressure shocks, which move diffusively Generally speaking, ther- mal simulations require smaller timesteps than normal black oil simulations Thermal simulators also provide an energy balance ARE has generally found that the energy balance gen- erally correlates with the material balance—i.e,, what- ever the level of accuracy reflected in the material bal ance will correspord to about that ievel in the energy balance. The energy balance should also be checked along with the material balance. It also provides some interesting insight into the overall efficiency of the SAGD process. 2 SOR econosuy COM (rn ‘Ste Thermal Reservoir Simulat ‘The majonty of the cost in SAGD is wate! to produc ing steam. The material balance can be used directly in the calculation of efficiency. Not all produced heat can be recovered, however impruved efficiency in recover ing heat will significantly reduce steam generating costs Longer run times Mos SAGD simulations are nun with 2D erosssection: al models. Considerably more computation is required with theemai models than with black il models. As out lined presioust; grd-block sizes have to be quite small Normally, with conventional reservoir simulations, larger grid blocks can be used away from the wells. The nature of the SAGD mechanism does not allow large grid blocks tobe used, in SAGD, the steam chamber front progresses by melting a grid block’ oil, thereby precluding the use of large grid blocks. Some minor changes can be made by moving from I-to .S:meter grid blocks. Based on the sensitivities run by the author, thisis not recommended me me (Oa) Fig, [9-45 Nine Point Grid SOR ionPract. Mee Rate SC, (m*/day) ical Reservoir Simulation 300 = Oil Rate SC balances irf —— il Rate SC balance2.irf { i | | ——- Water Rate SC balance2.irf —— Water Rate SC balances irf 200 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Fig, 19-46 Ninepoint Grid Sensitivity Production Rate and Water Injection Rote Cumulative 04 SC (9, 05 ma Be on Time (Oat) Fig. 19-47 Nine-point Grid Sensitivity Cumulative Oil Production 2008Thermal Reservoir Simulation Table 19-3 Material Balance Statistics from Grid Differencing (Nine-Point vs. Five-Point Sensitivity) Without Niae-Point Discretization Initial Total | Current Total] Net inj/Prod [Net Heat Lost] Error water [nod | A38E-09 SOE TES DEF on Guo | var Oe aes SHES SE cH (amol) | 3508-08 2 ie Cpe OTE Energy [UY TRIE Se a) Soe | -L06E-T3 With NinePoint Discretization Initial Total | Current Total [ Net inj/Prod [Net Heat Lost] Error _[ % Error water [mod | 4386-09 2986-08 “SE *150.07 | _O.ATI6 ou (mon | 4998-08 1386-08 “337-08 TSies06 [OTS oH (gino [ 538606 SRF Done=00 BSDE-0S | 2156 trey [GD 39S 208614 528bc0 “hae | Sen? | Oar Steam injection well instabilities For the injertion well, there are often stability prob- Jems. Steam has a viscosity more like a gas—in the range 010.015 cp. The viscosity of steam and water are shown in Figure 19-48. There are very high permeabilities used in the unconsolidated sands, particularly when accounting for geomechanical effects. The net effect of this i that ‘when the steam injection rate is controlled, the solution is very sensitive to the well block pressure, This often leads to instabilities oa] 2 Dynamic vacosty In op 2 8 8 [steam | | | | ° 00) 700 300 Temperature degrees Celsive ‘Fig, 19-48 Viscosity of Steam and Water There are a number of options available, I is possible to tighten the tolerances on the pressure solution and, in some cases, the pressute solution for the welt equation alone. Sometimes this seems to work, and sometimes it merely increases run times One of the simulator developers simply changes the well index to reduce the instabilities. This significantly decreased run times and improved the material balance, butt may not be desirable ifthe well will goon a pressure control later tn his case, the injectivity of the well may be unrealistically reduced Having said this, most horizontal sections are not completely open. Screens are placed across roughly one- quarter t0 one-half of the horizontal well section Realistically, conventional reservoir experience indicates skins are eeal, The author has not found any available data where the skin has been ineasured. The author has experienced stability problems on horizontal wells in conventional oil reservoirs where there were pressure solution problems on the produc- ers. In this case, the production was not affected by ‘quite large reductions in the well index. The limiting fac- tor seemed to be the amount of oil that could converge ‘on that part of the reservoir, It is possible that the sur rounding formation will control the rate at which steam can be injected 485Practical Reservoir Simulation 400 Water Rate (ma/day) 8 8 0 2 4 6 400 g ‘a Rae $0 pce Wiis ils SE ita 3 Time (yt) Water Rae (maiday) 100 © 2 4 Fig, 19-49 Stability Dificulies with Steam Injection This problem is very easy to spot on a horizontal reservoir simulation. A prime example is shown in Figure 19-49, f nothing else, the results are not visually pleasing [tis probable that a smaller grid block would not solve this problem, although the author has not tested this Slightly larger grid blocks might help. Countercurrent flow Ina number of runs, the author had difficulties when there were gas and water over the bitumen. The objective Of these runs was to match the pressure at the top of the steam chamber with the pressure in the overlying zones, ‘Thus, the low-density steam was rising while the higher density water was falling. In addition, there were phase changes with the water as it was contacted by the steam, This can lead to numerical problems and very slow execution times. It appears that the countercurrent flow caused difficulties for the reservoir simulator, The prob- em appears to disappear when the fluids enter the steam chamber, which, if the volume is large, can ‘quench the steam chamber, or when the steam pressure is high enough to cause displacement of the steam into the overlying zones. 485 < Phase shifts In one of the simulators used by the author, a control is availabie that limits the number of times the phases can change from successive iterations. The description for the use of this control states: When the reservoir conditions are at sat. rated values and the reservoir Muids contain very volatile components, of the ‘otal heat capacity of a grid block is small, it may hap- pen that @ very small change in pressure or temperature will cause phase appearance or disappearance in a grid block in almost every iteration during a timestep. A keyword can be used to limit the number of phase changes to a specified number This may cause the numerical performance to improve, but it can come at the expense of material balance errors,Heat capacities and thermal conductivities When STARS. a product of CMG. was developed Sinmuttaneously with SAGD, there was a bug in the calcu- lation of heat transfer. The simulator identified the grid block with the highest temperature, a form of upstream, ‘weighting. The transter of heat was then calculated using the thermal conductivity of this upstream block to the this led to adjoining blocks. In some circumstances, oscillatory behavior and convergence problems when, contrasting thermal conductivities existed in adjacent uric blocks. For this one will find that older data sets, which are used to develop subsequent simulations, often have identical thermal capacities and conductivities for the rock matrix, gas, and water. This step was designed to avoid instabilities that might occur, The author has found these common properties in a number of data sets, Since that time, the calculation has been changed and now uses a harmonic average thermal conductivity between grid blocks. In the author's experience, the use of averaged thermal properties seemed to effect no. ‘ble change in results: hence, itis likely that this not practice is no longer required. Slabbing Very atten in the early period of the oil production, there 8 an anomalous spike of oil production occurs in most runs and seems to coincide with the per: od immediately after the upward plume of steam his the top of the reservoir, ‘This appears to representa numerical effect. The oil in the stack of grid blocks adjacent to the steam plume seems to melt at once, which leads to the short-term oll production rate spike shown in Figure 19-50. The author has termed this slabbing, because the whole slab of grid blocks appears to melt at once or in a shor-spaced series, This effect has also been noted by at least one other author, with a similar explanation, = Oil Rate Spike so An i i * 000, OO ee ake a Fig 19-50 Slabbing—Oit Rate SpikePractical Reservoir Simulation Detailed SAGD Pro’ cess Description Steamflood front mechanism the mobile material and a gradation of saturations. These Extensive work on these issues has been done diagrams are shown in Figures 19-53, 19-54, 19-55, With respect 10 both water and steam flooding, with 19-56, 19-57, and 19-58 Sood matches obtained between analytical and lab- oratory experiments, An example of this is shown in Figure 19-51. Historically, steamflood work has concentrated on the interface «00 : between the oil and the bitumen. It Loi iy Sasgueares | is based on the assumption that the steam will condense at the cold bitumen front, This process would | 3) farensenras —-L5) Tore fomn} | sreaw F000. be dominated by watercil relative permeability curves. Behind this Tewrenatune °F 3 region is saturated steam, and this process will be affected by gasbitu ol men telative permeability Iti tikely os that the process in a SAGD chamber involves recovery both at the inter- face and in the steam chamber dur worwaréariogs Tit P | ee DISTANCE ALONG CORE - Fer Comparison of calculated and experimental temperature proties for laboratory mode! ing a period of time. —— TO Convection | steam SOLUTION Gas ancantimouan In the strictest sense, convection means the ansfer of heat by the motion of fluids that have a heat capacity. In classic steam flooding, the movement of steam behind the front is a convective process. The context for this discussion about convection concerns the movement of steam inside a SAGD chamber This was clearly envisaged by Butler, who, in his theoretical developments, shows material mov- 1 ing down the interior of the cham- ber as shown in Figure 19-52 This is observed in reservoir sist °5 ulation. It was first identified in the literature by fto et al They show a Comparison of series of diagrams that illustrate a progressive change in the depth of ot necoveny -Pv ‘OAD On steam F900: Ta 20°F S hexrennwenrac = carcuraTeo 7 @ W820 FLulosArooucto - Py calculated and expenmenial ail cacavery curves for laboratory moce! Fig, 19-51 Steam Flooding AdvancePOSITION OF = INTERFACE) Su Tat N STEAM / CHAMBER ¥ a NORMAL oniGiNaL veLoerry RESERVOIR ve ~ near CONDUCTION Fig. {9-52 SAGD Theory Developed by Bauer cs ot oe anaes Fig, 19-53 Simulation Reswitstajacentt0 Steam Chamber ‘This seems to have caused a smal furor, The author sees no conflict between the theoretical development and the results of simulation. The equation developed by Butler is shown as follows: 20A5,k, gah mv, (194) ermal Reservorr Simulatio Fig, 19-54 Deailed uotherms of SAGD Simulation Fig, 19-55 Detailed Contours of Oil Saturation at Edge of SACD Chamber Details of this gradation in saturations are not specif cally highlighted in Butlers theory which uses some clever integration and assumed properties. The assump tion in question is oil permeability—ie., the product of ,, and absolute permeability He did account for the vari: alion in the viscosity of the oll with temperature gradients in the mobile zone. He solved for oil flow, since he was principally interested in predicting production rates, Water flow in the mobile zone did not appear to be ofPi tactical Reservoir Simulation Fig, 19-56 Detailed Steam Flow Contours at Edge of S260 Chamber ‘ae ag” Fig. 19-57 Detailed Water Flow Contours at Edge of SAGD Chamber Fig, 19-58 Detailed Oit-Flow Contours at Edge of SAGO Chamber particular interest, and he presents no calculations, He must have been aware that water (steam condensate) was flowing, but, normally, water is not sold. The results have been interpreted to indicate that the rate is Independent of the shape of the interface. We know, for simulation, that SAGD recovery efficiency is heavily affected by rates and operating conditions. This also affects steam chamber shape, which will be dis- cussed in more detail later in this chapter. There were, of course, some justifiable simplifications made in the development of the theory The author has discussed some of the simulation models directly with Dr. Butler. One of the problems he observed was that there is a discrepancy between the rates and permeabilities predicted from his theory and those predicted by simulations. Numerical errors in the simulations were suggested as a possible source of this discrepancy. Having done a number of grid sensitivities. the author does not believe the problems are numerical but concurs with the comment about permeability: The author’ explanation is somewhat different in that geome- chanics indicates large permeability changes near theite and more imederate changes away from the bilities, the two methods likely pracluce substantially sinuilar results Operating conditions Operating conditions provide some interesting impli cations, Referring to Figure 19-59, the steam goes in the upper horizontal injector condenses at the n is produced out of the reservoir front the lower terface horizontal producer. E portion of a cettain the heat in the reservoir is simply produced and does n0, useful work, The amount of heat that is transferred to the cold bitumen is going to depend on the temperature dit ference between the cold the amount of heat that is swept away through the pro ducer, More heat should be transferred with slower side chamber velocities and t a thinner zone would require less material to travel re steam and biturnen and her temperatures, Conversel that the objective of pro. The ot totally Wasted that is produced from the producing steam is The heat cant be (and is) recovered in A beter steam oil ratio heat exchangers, This changes optimization measure of efficiency than the cumulativ SOR) would be: oil prod heat in ~ recovered heat out) divided Solution gas Most early simulations done in cyclic steam were ad 3 done with no solution gas in the oil, ft has been arg that, at low solution gas oil contents of 4 m'/m* selfbbl) or less, solution gas drive will he minimal Further itis likely that cold bitumen is sufficiently viscous that yas bubbles will not form 2 continuous gas saturation in the reservoir and lead to gas relative permeability Optimum Drawdown intertace at wailbore Too litle drawdown: ‘Too much drawdown steams produced Fig, 19-59 Heat Loss Due to ProductionPractical Reservoirs Simulation Layers of gas are found in some heavy oil reservoirs and this has suggested a number of things ‘The layers mnay indicate sealing barriers within the reservoir The gas should segregate, Gas sealing, as outlined eatlier in this book, is con- trolled by capillary imbibition barrier pressures, This also varies tor wetting and nonwetting phases. Consequently even though there are thin traps of gas within an oil zone, this does not imply that there are seals to steain or that increases in reservoir pressure due to steam injection won't cause the gas to leak From the perspective of segregation, geological time is evidently available for the in siw conditions. The author has heard that solid residues from heavy oil wells, will remold if let in a beaker for several days. So, while bitumen can be near solid, its not static on the scale of several days. Clearly reservoir temperature would affect how quickly segregation would occur To the author’ knowledge, there are no tests on this issue on the pore scale level Having said this, reservoir simuiation model results are affected by the inclusion ofsolution gas. A number of these issues with heavy of relative permeability were out- lined earlier This issue remains unresolved. Foamy oif flow Foamy oil was originally proposed by Dr Gerry Smith. His proposal was based on pressure transient test interpretations of heavy oil producers and was based on fa logical argument that there must be some viscosity reduction to account for interpreted. permeabilities. This is not a simple issue and includes the effect of wormhole propagation and the attendant increases in formation permeability It has also spawned a great deal of fundamental research on oil Now in reservoirs. Some of this work has included tests with glass micromodels to view what is happening on the pore scale. The most recent research has indicated that foaming does not appear to be occur ring in glass micromodels. In the authors opinion, the permeabilty is changing more than the liquid viscosity and this is leading to the high permeabilities on primary heavy oil production. However, more research is required to categorically prove permeability increase over viscosity decrease (foam flow). It appears that the foamy oil research is more mature than the geomechanical analysis. or Thermal expansion Thermal expansion occurs when the oil sands are heated, There are a number of implications to this: Tre fluids often have a higher coefficient of thermal expansion than the solids (sand grains). In cold bitumen, which has a very high viscosity this pressure will not be able to dissi- pate laterally and vertically To some extent, the sand will explode Butler analyzed expected pore pressure increases and dissipation time in 2 paper entitled, The Expansion of Tar Sands, During Thermal Recoven’™ lf the stearn chamber expands, the expansion and stresses must be absorbed vertically and lat erally Thus, the cold sand between chambers will be squeezed horizontally At the same time,the vertical expansion of the steam chamber will cause the overburden to be “jacked up" to some extent, which will decrease vertical stresses with- in the steam chambers. During the early periods of heating, there will be concentric expansion surrounding the injection and production welt for a SAGO pattern. In effect, the differential expansion of oit sands fh ids and solids will reduce the effective stress or reduce sand grain contact pressures. This will increase perme: ability somewhat, but it will enhance the tendency of the oil sands to shear The differential expansion between the cold and hot areas will cause shear stress- es, and this wifi facilitate shearing, The latter greatly increases permeability. In the literature, there are examples of stress path changes with time. Timing is very important. The etfec- tive stress decrease originally occurs at temperatures before the bitumen becomes mobile. The stresses from expansion are absorbed aliéad of the steam chamber in the cold bitumen. Therefore, shearing should occur in the cold bitumen and within the steam chamber and cold bitumen transition. Shearing ‘The general concept of shearing is shown in Figure 19-60. in essence, the stresses induced by the steam chamber (both fluid pressures and thermal expansion) cause the oilsands to ail. When this occurs, the perme- ability is enhanced as described earlierfhermal Reservoir Simu Reduction in Mean Effective Stress due co Increasing Pore Pressures sy Phase | Fig, 19-60 General Concept of Sein The Phase A pilot at AOSTRAS UTF project was exten: sively instrumented. Piezometer readings within the Phase A pilot clearly demonstrate that pressures were being elevated to nearsteam pressures well in advance of, the steam chamber, which is indicated by the presence of @ temperature increase. Another example is available from the JACOS Hangingstone projects. This data is, indicative of fluid mobility within the cold reservoir out side of the steam chamber. These elevated. pressures reduce the effective stresses within the cold oil sands, which encourages the tendency toward shear failure Required permeability changes Based on the early UTF modeling, it would seem that very high permeability increases and porosity changes are required throughout the reservoir. However, if one considers a steam chamber, reservoir permeability has the most effect in the immediate vicinity of the well where there isa flow concentration. This is potentially sig- nificant. Large dilation effects may not be required throughout the entire reservoir to achieve production increases, It also suggests the possibility of stimulation, ARE conducted a sensitivity by comparing two cases: a reservoir of high uniform permeabilities of 7,500 mD horizontally and 2,500 mD vertically (nearweltarget.dat) +a reservoir of undilated permeabilities of 1,775 mD horizontally and 1,509 mD vertically (near- wellbase.dat) A third run was tuned to match the production pro- files and cumulative recovery, The results are shown on Figures 19-61, 19-62, 19-63, and 19-64. Indeed, the permeability changes required are far less drastic than is suggested by modeling air permeabilities (or the entire reservoirPractical Reservoir Simula The maxiniuin increase in permeability isa factor of 2 in the nearwellbore region, It is appropriate to consider the effects of drilling and completion also, The well is drilled to a larger diameter than the liner. Most projects Use either slots or a screen to prevent sand production: therefore, the sand falls onto the slots or screeds. In this lation comes from reservoir engi case, not all of the ‘neering effects. This occurs directly adjacent to the well ‘where it will have the most impact. Away from the wellbore, a 30% increase in perme. was required. The modeling showed that no tea: could sonable near wellbore alteration in permeabili account for the production increase required. From this, ARE concluuled that geomechanical effects must have ‘occurred al, or ahead of the steam chamber interface. The results are unlikely t6 be unique. The changes in per meability are unlikely to be as abrupt 2s was history matched. A transition from various levels of permeabil- ty could be incorporated. However, there would be no OU Rate SC (msdday) basisto determine which of these solutions would be the results show be viewed! as approximate lly, laboratory measurements coukd be made of Athabasca oi sands to directly determine these effects. In practice, obtaining undisturbed cores is both expen sive and difficuk, With an in sita porosity of 28% and an index of dis. turbance of about 30%, the nearwell pair porosity would increase to about 36.4%. Based on pressure tran: sient analysis the undisturbed permeability of the for mation is about 2.995 mD. Aa increase in permeability by a factor of 2, due to disturbance, indicates the near well permeability requised is about 5,850 mD. Th within 20% of the average air permeability derived from xt, the previous history-match perme- core. Ia this co abilities are logical Figures 19-65, 19-68, and 19-67 stow the perme. ability distributions and the shape of the steam chamber derived a TT Time (Oate) Fig, [9-61 NearWel Permeability Enhancement—Oil Ratesmal Reservoir Simulation oo 2008 20s 2008 aor? 3008 ‘ime (Oat) Fig, [9-52 NearWell Permeabiliy Enhancement—Injection Rates ‘2002 2003~=~*« SCS: SCOOT SSC«O0B~SCSC«OCSC*« TSC Te (Cat) Fig, 19-63 NearWell Permeability Enhancement-—SORaoe 26083068 2007 Time Oat) Fig, 19-64 Nea Wel Permeability Enhancement Fig. 19-65 Permeability Distribution in Uniform High Permeability Reservoir 20082008 ==« 2010S rmalative Oi! Production Fig 19-66 Permeability Disribution to Match Use of Air PrmeabiliesFig, 19-67 Ternary Diagrara of Steam Chamber ‘with Lovalized Permeability Eahoncernent Hydraulic fracturing Toe possibility of SAGD has been debated fracturing, for into two possibilities: the use of hydraulic fracturing as a startup @..t0 establish communication et the injector and producer the use of hydraulic fracturing as a generat injection technique At present, the concept of injec fracture ily due to concerns about pressure is not popular prim: containment above and below the pay zones atid poss ble distortions to the steam chamber. It seems to have worked in eyelic steam stimulation, The first possibility could shorten the startup time dramatically: Thermal convection is a slow process, and reducing the 3 to § month startup time would be economically advantageous. The AEUB has allowed this to proceed on AEC’ Foster Creek project. In the author’ opinion, this is a realistic application: howev cer, time will tel Typical Issues in Bitumen-Prone Areas Reservoir characterization Invariably, distribution of permeability and porasity is {a major issue in reservoir simulation. The two largest areas of biturnen deposition are the northeastern section, of Alberta and the Orinoco belt of Venezuela. The best pay is usually found in areas with stacked fluvial chan- nels. This is ue of the Kern River field in California, also, Channel environment Fluvial environments are characterized by rapid lat. eral changes, Experience has shown that channels have characteristic dimensions. For instance, as shown in Figure 19-68, itis possible to estimate the length of river meanders based oa modern geomorphologic studies 9 For the internal structure of fluvial channels, 2 typical width to thickness ratio is 10:1 (Kuplersberger and Deutsch).* Channels or, more correctly, point bars have charac- teristic cross sections An example of this is shown in Figure 19-69. There are a number of key features. Note that the point bar accretes on the inside of the bends and grows to the outside of the bends as shown in Figure 19-70.* lethe river goes through an annual cycle or has period ic flooding, then there will be deposition of different energies and particle sizes. In the final stage, when the channel is buried, the watercourse that is shown on the right of Figuee 19471 can be filled with either perme able or impermeable material This is known as an abandonment plug A umber of discontinuities are present, which are usually muds or shales. To summarize, there are three kinds of mud relevant to production: Inwerbedded muds Inclined heterolthic stata (IHS) Abandonment plugscal Reser i | A noawt | A247 28 | (eopo.a ans Warman 1360) | ff] tonene | | Rn | | | / | Mangere wisth=i6 10 29. times | coer tn I tasiane_ 18721 imtSont ; + Fig. 8. Schematic eprasantation of large scale eoint bar based on channel width and meander wave length (from Fl Mossop, 1985) Fig, 19-89 Characteristic Coss Section Fig. 19-68 Characteristic Dimensions of Channels ‘of Fluvial Channels Horizontal Well Vertical Well CHANNEL, FILL — > Accretion Direction Fig. 19-70 Development of Point Bar Depositson Ape HOB Fig. 19-71 Abandonment Plug—Foint Bar Deposits Geostatistics Geostatistics is a highly appropriate tool for analyzing the distribution of these different facies; however, such descriptions must be properly tuned. This involves extremely detailed description of rock properties and geometrical distribution. From the point of view of geo metrical distributions, ARE has not been able to find other analogues to the McMurray in the Athabasca area, The work of Strobl et al, provides some insight, in par- ticular with respect to IHS; however, this is insufficient for the purposes of quantitative description." More detailed outcrop studies could provide useful base data, There are a number of river outcrops, and data is available from sev eral surface mining operations. It will take years of research to produce quantitative results, ‘There have been some attempts to use data from Prudhoe Bay and the Tillamook estuary in Oregon; how- ever, all of these have significantly different morphology and scales. The use of inappropriate analogues does not provide ary useful insight. Fractal geostatistics were used for the UTF sites, as described in Muktierjee et al. Due to computational tations, the results of a number of individual pattern mod: els were concatenated, This is shown in Figures 19-72 and 19-73. Figure 19-74 shows a method in which the distribu tion of mudstones was broken into smaller scale models. Adding the results of these individual runs permits one to perform a detailed large-scale model. Note that width of the element of symmetry is 35.0 meters. This corresponds 20 a coral pattern width of 70 meters. Discontinuous barriers in SAGD In conventional oil reservoir engineering as well as simulation, the effect of these interbeds has been quanti- tatively calculated. The fist step was to determine statis ically tne shale distribution as discussed in chapter 4 The major reservoir performance effec is to reduce vert cal permeability due to increased flow path lengths. This, is shown in Figure 19-75, Note that these calculations are usually done with singlephase flow. Returning to the previous model prepared by Muhkerjee, the fractal model results in a much less con- tinuous reservoir description. Ths is important for SAGD. simulation since continuous shales form barriers to steam rise, whereas a series of smaller shales with gaps in between will present a minimal disruption to steam rise This is shown in Figure 19-76. > 418Practical Reservoir Simulation UIT cons —eS ean) cone MCOSL USING FRACTAL OISTRIBUTION g™ ge oe SS — aT Fig. 19-12 Disinbution of Barriers in UTF Modeling —Vertical Cross Sections as Fig. 19473 Distribution of Barriers in UTF Modeling — Arrangement of Cross Sections usr 7 on It anay be coneluded that the effects of barriers in SAGD involve fund mentally different processes and physics than in conventional reservoir engineering, This issue has been approached Irora an experia spective also Lab testing of mudstone gap size on SAGD performance Yang and Butler did an extensive laboratory study on this issue using scaled lab experiments. They examined a number of interesting geometries." The first involved the use of a plas- tic barrier that extended from immed ately adjacent to the well all the way across the pattern. This is shown on Figure 19-77. The results showed that as long as the heat could transfer upward and there was a small gap, the bitumen would be drained. By analo- gy, a very small gap in the mudstones is all that is required to provide good ver xical communication The second case involved the use of a plastic barrier that extended from the well all the way across the pattern with only a gap at the edge of the pattern. The results of this experiment are shown on Figure 19-78. In essence, the steam migrated along the bottom of the plastic barrier and then grew upwards from the end, Following this, the bitu- men started to drain away from the wel con top of the barrier and then reversed backward toward the well underneath the barrier Both of these experiments are strong indications that, while discontic uous mudstones may delay oil recov ery, they do not impair ultimate recov ry. It also establishes that even a small gap near the wells will have a major elfect, A gap that occurs most of the way actoss the pattern will eventually provide drainageThermal Reservoir Simulation Fig. 19-74 Method of Combining Results From Multiple Models Indes proper of images [os [earen ae um] rap aes fs eo wis-[a6s [2] 199 10 wa aene | os | 391 S10 gia [ a6 [6s a re 336 _[ 078 -[ “397s eis-[ gis) ss) se ‘= oa suber of paris, 1,» sector mean econ (Dears) Yat svete sage (0. (p= oli lee of igaoacs, am, tao az, ar SEB Cam =e "ena acne ‘taal pn) Flow pats peependieslar aod parallels grin azar Depletion Fg 09 5 Increased Flow Path Lengihs—Single Phase Fig, 19-76 Growth of Steam Chamber around Barrer > 48Fly. [9-77 Physical Flow Model of Yang and Butler Reservoir simulation of UTF and Hangingstone More recently, to, Ichikawa, and Hirata have shown that steam will detour around. low permeability areas, This is shown in Figure 19479 which illustrates the results from reservoir simulation and a vertical array of thermocouples. Further results are shown in Figure 19-80." Ito etal. state further that low-permeabilty zones and such phenomena were seen i seven out of nine obser. vation wells in the UTF Phase 8 area, which comprised, Fig, 19-79 Growth of Steam Chamber ret Stearn Flow around a Barrier Fig. 19-78 Cross Section of tsothers ant Flo ctors qnound Lath Plastic Barier three injector/producer pairs. The diameter of the detours was calculated to be less than 10 meters in most cases. Based on this rate, 775% of wells will have some form of barter in them, Since the fundamental geological environment of the McMurray sands is similar, it can reasonably be extrapolated that the majority of bitumen wells will have some kind of barrier present. Large sections of pay, without any bartiers whatsoever, are the exception for SAGD development Fig, 19.80 Siraration Cross Section of lsorherms ‘and Flow Vectors around BarrierKern River shales Similar experience has been demoy strated in the Kern River field. Figure BSL depicts the shale distribution determined using detailed descriptions for this field.” Key conclusions from this study are Detailed heterogeneity modeling is required and can result ir yood performance matches. Discontinuous shales allow signifi cant oil drainage from upper to lower sands As a result, ower sands have higher apparent recov eries and upper sands have lower apparent recoveries, ‘Small pattern element or single sand models are inadequate to predict recovery. Properties of mudstones “The shales found in the unconsolidated sediments of northeastern Alberta are not shales in the context of con: ventional weservoir engineering, In fact, the progzerties of shales vary considerably. For instance, as a junior engineer, the author found many of the log analysis examples from the Gull Coast did not apply to Alberta. Gulf Coast shales are much cleaner and (ypically have resistivities of 2-3 ohms. [i the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin, shales typical: ly are more a mix of silt and clay and have resistivities that are typically higher, usually 8-10 obms. One trick in log analysis is to use the resistivity of the overlying or underlying shates to estimate shate resistivity: The inher: ent assumption is that the clay in the sand is the same as the shales above and below The question then becomes, Is the shale in the sand: stones pure clay or a mix of elay and silt? strong argu ment can be made that the pore sizes are sulficiently small that only the clay portion ofthe overlying sands and shales is really in the reservoir rock. Therefore, shate adjustments should be done with clean clay resistivities of 2t03 ohm-meters instead of 8 19 @ohm-meters. The con- verse argument is that the clays are intrinsically ditfer enti. there are many clay minerals with different con local shale, realy clay and sil ductivitiesand that should still be used, Fig. 19-81 Stochastic Distnbution of Shales in Kern River The truth is somewhere in between, The clays are dit ferent. but the shales above and below are not clean s. The trick that can be safely used in the Gulf Coast reeds t0 be applied with caution elsewhere The mudstones in uncemented formations are quite ditferent from pure clays, They are, in fact, a mixture of clay. silt, and sand. There is considerably more sand than. is typical of most shales and, as a result, the properties of the mudstones are not typical of shales. They have con- siderably higher permeability and porosity {a this regard, there is a substantial deviation in the pattern of reservoir performance that one comes to expect from convention: al reservoir experience. This cannot be determined by looking at logs. It requires detailed geological descriptions. Thin sections have proved to be very useful in understanding the behavior of these rocks. Layering The effect of discontinuous barriers has been dis cussed in some detail. Like almost all other reservoirs the fluvial channel environment also has layering and interbedding. ARE performed some studies using a description based on logs from an actual well. The model included interbedded sands and silts immediately above the injec: tor and midway through the section. The largest elfect ‘was to cause the shape of the steam chamber to widen This is the opposite ofthe upside-down triangle predicted by Butlers theoryInterbed Interbedaling is a series f alterna 1g eaudistones auc sands. This reservoir is clearly of lower quality than the massive cross-bedkled sands that are present in channels Experience at the UTF indicates that the steam chamber slows in height growth in these sections, This was sum marized in an averview context by Faroug Ali Shape of the SAGD steam chamber To date, the most comprehensive data regarding the actual shape of the chambers comes from the UTF site The plot shown in Figure 19-82 does not show the cl upside-down triangle predicted by Buller from theory that is demonstrated in many lab experiments The the: ony is not wrong per se, hut actual reservoirs are rarely omogeneous The author has dubbed this the manta ray shape, since the chamber undulates somewhat and is pointed at the edges. There has been some intense discussion at ARE a8 to whether this shape was caused by geomectian. ical effects. Overal, based on ARES geomechanical runs geomechanics do not appear to be responsible for the shape of the chamber, Inthe author’ opinion, the shape of the chamber is controlled mosty.by geological effects such as layering and discontinuities ARE did a number of sensitivities with the shape of the chamber Inthe festcase, we input alternating layers with permeability increased by a factor of 2 and decreased (divided) by a factor of 2. The porosity was left constant This is shown in Figure 19-83 Fig, 19-82 Shape of Steam Chamber rom the UTF 19-83 Alternating Layer Sensinuie In the second case, we input a gradation of perme- abilities as shown in Figure 19-84, This was expected to give the manta ray shape. The actual effect was to change the shape of the chamber into the shape of the superman crest with the truncated upper edges of the upsidediown le rather than a manta ray In the third case, we input a series of discontinuous barriers, The pattern is too dense and too closely spaced to be reali tic, The shape generated certainly indi cates an erratic development as showa in Figure 19-85, Inthe final analysis, it seems likely that combination of Case Two with grada tional permeability changes, Case Three with some discontinuities, and the Layered Case with interbedded layers near the horizontal wells (which produced the rightsideup triangle) could be combined to match the shape observed in the UTF Phase A. Note that there was an inter bedded layer in this pilot area. will be interesting to see further results as they become available. trianFig, 19-34 Gractation of Pacmeabities Tracking the development of the steam chamber itis easiest to track the overall development of the steam chamber by monitoring the progres of isotherms. This change is quite dramatic. However. there is some conduction away from the chamber and a gradation of temperatures. Therefore the change of colors onthe out put plots does not indicate the precise location of the steam chamber interface ‘The ternary diagram indicates where the steam chamber itself is located. The ternary diagram is a colorcoded triangular plot, which indicates whether the fluids in the formation are water, oil, or gas. The ter nary diagram cannot indicate if the gas is steam or hydrocarbon (methane) ‘The pressure plot shows a general increase in pressure within the steam chamber. However, pressure increases precede the steam chamber. The pressure increase in the reservoir is caused by a number of occurrences. The oil expands with temperature, as does the matrix. If the amount of thermal expansion is ditferent forthe matrix and pore fluid, then the pore pressure can either increase Fig. 19-85 Discontinuous Barriers or decrease, The reservoir fluids can move to equalize these pressures. Until high temperatures are reached, the bitumen viscosity is very high, As a result, these pore pressure increases dissipate slowly: Pressure increases can occur from stress increases also, Water above and below Generally speaking, water below is not thought to be a problem in SAGD. Some vertical standoff is required, but this is in the order of | t0 3 meters. This may leave a ‘small basement of oil that is unrecoverable. ‘Top water can also affect recovery When the steam chamber rises vertically into the water zone, the water will segregate by gravity. The water 2one also absorbs a Sreat deal of heat, A tiny skiff of water on top of an oil col umn will not be significant. Therefore, it is the relative amount of water and oil pay that is significant. A general rule of thumb is that up to onesixth of the total pay can be water filled without noticeable effects on production performance. At proportions larger than one-sixth water, itis matter af economics > 40sPractical Reservoir Simulation Gas above and below Gas below may seem counterintuitive. In fact, the gas isnot truly below—ie., below the oil pay—but rather dis tributed in layers through the pay. As discussed previous ly thin layers of gas do not necessarily indicate a barrier to steam oF higher injection pressures, unless the uct stones are quite thick, Gas layers are more common in the western part ofthe MeMurray bitumen trend Gas above the oil pay also affects performance. So far. most ofthe efforts regarding this issue have been directed, to estimating the effects of gas cap pressure reduction caused by gas production, This has resulted in some of the bitterest controversy ever seen in the Canadian indus: try The Alberta Provincial Government fas held three hearings on this to date:the General Bitumen Inquiry. the Surmont Hearing, and the Chard-Leismer hearing. No decision has been rendered on the last hearing, The first two are available on the Internet at the AEUB website ‘They are in a pdt file format and are free. Rather than try to paraphrase these comprehensive reports, the author recommends that individuals read them directly, Implications of thief zone From a SAGD design perspective, the thief zone rep- resents a serious technical problem. The steam cham ber must be run at lower temperatures and pressures to prevent the loss of steam, Steam loss cannot be pre- vented entirely. This can represent a real loss in efficien- cy, which translates directly into the potential econom- ies of the project Thief zone The top of the Wabiskaw/Upper McMurray sands are thought to be in communication on a regional basis ‘This can be represented in a number of ways. One way is to use a dummy well to remove high-pressure fluids Another way isto extend the grid with increasingly large rid blocks. Since there is no steam chamber advance into bitumen in water and gas zones, larger grid blocks can be used. ARE has prepared a number of such sensitivities using both methods. The initial sensitivities were done with a half well pair pattern model. Early runs withthe sensitiv ties indicated high steameil ratios and high heat losses fora single pattern. These results were, however, not real istic. Since the actual projects are implemented in pads with mutipte wells, modeling was changed to include a 2’epattern arrangement, On a proportionate basis, steam losses dropped considerably and reduced steamoit ratios. The author recommends that thie! zone tosses be modeled. as best one can, with elements of semmetties 'spical of actual development The production of gas has introduced some signi cant pressure gradients in the overlying upper sands Restated, the thief zone pressures are unlikely to be cont stant overlying a potential SAGD development. If this is the case, there may be influx from the boundaries adja cent to higher pressured sands and losses atthe bound aries adjacent tothe lower pressured overlying sands. The combined steam chamber from multiple patterns may be expected £0 equalize due to the much lower viscosity of steam than water. One potential advantage of modeling the reservoir away from the pattern is that overburden heat losses can be accounted for We used null grid blocks for the eser- voir outside of the pattern—with an extra margin. The underburden heat losses in the overlying thief zone away from the margin were not calculated. In the end, we felt that all ofthe heat was lost through the dummy well, and this was probably a more conservative assumption. In reality. a new pattern might be built eventually next to the existing pattern, and some of this, heat might be recovered. This suggests that there may be considerable merit to attempting to block the permeability in the regional sands adjacent to a SAGD project. Experience in con- ventional oil and gas suggests that implementing this will nt be easy Field thief-zone losses Field data is available from one project at Kear! Lake in Alberta, This was a pilot project where there was an overlying gas zone. The pressure losses here reduced the efficiency of the steam injection. Natural gas injection was used in a circle around the pilot well to repressurize the area, Pattern containment is a clas: sie pilot project problem with conventional water- flooding. Since the patterns do not repeat themselves to provide containment, it is well-known that pilot responses typically underestimate field scale water- flood implementation. The increased pressures that occurred due to gas injection did improve production response; however, a considerable amount of injected gas was required.From an operational perspective, it will be difficult to evaluate the exact operating pressure without knowing the thiefzone pressures, We have not iound any way to detect breakthrough easily from the simulations tha hhave done. Gult has indicated, in a government applica tion, that they feel thae water cut te when this will in occurs. Giveg the problems with relative permeability determination, outlined previously, the author is skept cal. Experience will help resolve this issue; unfortunately, such information is not in the public domain yet. SAGD Design Issues Criteria for evaluating performance The major criteria for evaluating SAGD are: + Breakthrough Time. This is the time that it takes for communication to occur between the hori zontal injection and production wells. It isa func. tion of input heat as well as the distance between the injector and producer. + Production Rates. This aftects economics directly. Higher rates translate into revenue. lt is common practice to refer o the maximum rate, because this usually indicates the overall level forthe pro duction forecast. + Recovery Factor. Tis is an indication of the total amount of resource that can be expected to be recovered, However a high recovery factor does not necessarily translate into the most efficient economic recovery ‘+ Steam-Oil Ratio (SOR)/Oil-Steam Ratio (SR). ‘This is an indication of the efficiency with which bitumen is recovered. It can be specified on an instantaneous and cumulative basis. Normally the Cumulative SOR is used. tt inversely describes the overall efficiency ((e.,a low SOR indicates an eff cient SAGD process). Usuallythe instantaneous SOR is quite high atthe beginning ofthe steam Injection process. This is inherent in the physics of the process, However, toward the end of the steam injection process, the instantaneous SOR can be ‘an indication of when the project should be ter inated economically + Rise Rate. Many people use rise ate as an indication of SAGD chamber performance. This is normally expressed in em/day or in./day The author regards this as potentially misleading. Chamber shapes are not necessari- ly the classic upside-down triangular, and dls comtinuities, even of significant dimensions, can affect rise rate without really reflecting whether the SAGD process is working However, given a reasonably homogeneous reservoir, this can be a useful indicator, In the near future, the author believes that these crite- ria will be changed somewhat. This will be discussed under global optimization, Well length Once the curm has been made in a horizontal well, the cost of a horizontal well does not appear to vary greatly with length, This srongly suggests the use of longer well, Friction pressure loses in the steam injection well can be significant. Optimal chamber development suggests that the steam chamber should be as uniform as possible Detailed well models have been developed for modeling the flow in horizontal SAGD wells, The general result is, that large casing sizes are used for SAGD wells. Typically 1778 mm (7 in.) casing seems to be the most popular. In some cases, 244.5 mm (9% in.) casing is used. This sug- gests that there will be a point beyond which longer wells are not advantageous. Since $:D modeling is so time intensive, the author has seen relatively little work in the literature on this issue. Intuitively, one would expect that as heterogeneity increased, steam chamber problems would increase. There is not yet much practical experience with this issue. We do know that the fluvial environments have rapid changes in reservoir properties and, in the author's estimation, this will favor the use of shorter rather than longer wells ermal Reservoir Simulation 437etical Reserveir Simulation ‘There are practical comic: eratines ice the use of fonger horizontal wells. The chance fof workover failures anc com pletion failwres will increase: ‘with teat. Undoubtedty, one of the more important aspects in the horizontal section is physical friction, Sereens asso- ciated with slotted liners are physically delicate teappears thatthe best well length is not known yet, The fongest wells proposed seem to be about 1000 meters (3250 feet), and the shortest are about 500 meters (1.500 feet). From an economic perspective ignoring operational problems and heterogeneity, it would seem that the longer wells would be more economical Based on experience in the conventional side of the business, the author has used short well lengths in simulations, The average seems to be about 750 meters (2,500 feet) ‘Cumalatve Sten Ott Rath (in?) Well spacing More work has been done on the spacing between wells. The best summary on this issue is the work of Ito Ichikawa, and Hirata, which is shown in Figure 19-86. This work indicates clearly that there isa link between recovery and well spacing, This will depend on the height of the formation also. It seems that most designs for com- mercial projects are in the range of 70 to 110 meters between wells, with 90 being typical, The author suggests that this is an appropriate step for designing a fiett prof ect in the detailed design stages. Vertical spacing between producer and injector ‘The effect of vertical spacing has also been studied. ‘This was examined by Edmunds and Gittins and is shown in Figure 19-87, With larger vertical spacing, more time is, required to initiate communication between the injector and the producer. Ultimately this isan issue of timing and. ‘changes in rates. so Ome ‘aan ek am Rw Exapeed Tim ater alia Circulation (day) Fig 19086 rect of Hortssaga! Well Spacing—Cumutaive SOR 2 . ‘ 4 Figure 4 SAGO Stanup Time vs. Spacing & Potential Oiference (1 Darcy) ig. 19-87 SAGD Startup Time vs. Spacing ‘and Potential DifferenceSAGD start-up Most SAGD have been periormed using 2-D cross sections. Actus Simulations. as previously: discussed. wells are never spaced evenly apart. In the past, detailed ucted studies have been cor sing the aetual direction al surveys from the wells. True 3-D models are difficult 0 run since the longitudinal grid blocks are normally quite large: they should be of fe same order of size as the hor zontal dimension, Most of the comments in the liters ture are quite oblique on this point. The concern seems tobe to develop the chamber in a manner that is as even as possible, Giver that most conventional reservoirs demonstrate permeability variations, as do oil sands reservoirs, the author's expectation would be that chamber growth would be more strongly dominated by reservoir factors than the distance between wel’ ‘The author has an example where long distances were used, andl there isa section that apparently does ot because: dleveloy increased well spaciny. ©. The concern with this resu is thar the block is si wide that lateral lock volume is not possible, This simulation, which is shows in Figure 19-88, would nox, in the authorSopinion, actu hypotherical examp eating of the gti ally represent what would occur in the resewoir To mote correctly model along the length of the well a finer grid should be used as shown in Figure 19-89, The steam chambers now cnalesce along the axis, consistent with cross-sectional mode The data of Strobl et al Figure 19-90 supporss the view that reservoir properties affect chamber shape.” This is related to the IHS dls cussed earlier and the rip up breccia in the lett corner. The IHS, which occurs on a fine scale, is difficult to model, This would not be a problem if permeability were input as a true tensor, as discussed in chapter 2 from the UTE site shown in Fig, 19-85 J-D Optimization Using a Coarse Grid along Horizontal Well Axis ma i Re Fig, [9-89 3:0 Optimization Using a Fine Grd along Horizoneal Well cisPractical Reservoir Simulation ne we ve Fig, 19-90 Tempenatre Profiles ana Etec of {HS Measured in UTE Reservoir Artificial lift Provided sufficient pressure is available, the SAGD process, once started, will provide steam lift naturally The flow of these fluids to surface is not straightforward. Figure 19-91 showsa plot from the UTF Phase A and doc- uments pressure and temperature conditions in the riser” Recall that the UTF Phase A wells were actually located in a mine, and the fluids did not return to surface as they would in @ regular well Edmunds points out that they did not operate the well where there was intermittent flow and that these condi- tions are quite undesirable. Certainly, the intermittent pro- duction seems to have interrupted the surface facilities. ‘Slugging is hardly new to the oil business; this phenome- non is observed on many conventional wells, Still, some idea of how big and how frequent the slugs will be is quite helpful, Sometimes these details are not transmitted to facility design people, who may design facilities for steady state conditions. 490 « 2e—— o —_ bs Peart _ 3° TO ae ae ees Te o 2 ~ a le, ° b ft “150 425 10 75 50.250 (BH Temp - Tea, 099 6 Fig, [9-91 Vertical Riser cho Mine) to Surkace vs. felet Subcooting One of the implications of Edmunds’ paper seems «0 be that intermixtent production is inbezently bad. This is certainly true ifthe surface facilities were not designed 10 handle i. Conversely, Donnelly describes the intentional se of intermittent flow for the Hilda Lake project.”Wellbore hystraulies prograins have been ttesigned to calculate these effects, which have been called gey- sering The analogy is to the geyser in Yellowstone National Park in the United States. Donnelly compares, the lift at Hilda Lake to a coffee percolator (Perco-Litt?) Some of the results from the Edmunds paper are shown, in Figure 19-92, sonose te sataly tg) (= 10500 { ‘ 1080 Fig. 19-92 Btect of Steam Inlet Euthalpy on Vertical Flow in Wert Indeed, lit does occur on an intermittent basis. This program has been linked with a reservoir simulator to solve both intermittent wellbore and reservoir problems simultaneously. Butler has presented calculations using steady state cortelations. This information may also be used to determine lift rom SAGD wells. Butlers assump- tions are somewhat different."* The litt of oil can be aided by steam injection during the early stages. No extra facilities are required since all of the required equipment is in place forthe ini- tial startup phase. Some companies plan to use natural gas as a form of gas lift ‘The use of gas lit can be expanded to lower pressures by staging the lift. This process, called E/ift, is shown in Figure 19-93 and was originally developed by Dr Ken Kisman Conventional suckerrod pumps are limited by stuffing box rubbers and limit ed rate capacity. The rates from most SAGD wells typically make electric sub- mersible pumps (ESPs) more appropri ate, However, they are limited in the tem. perature range across which they can operate. Most people seem to feel that Thermal Reservoir Simulation FTP Celsius or about 800 kPa (340° Fabeenheit or 116 psi) is the limit of current technology ESPs also have limited santé production capacities, This may change in the fucure. ESPs are more costly o operate and are more difficult to put in the wellbore. At present, there is limited power available in gortheastern Alberta, ESPs consume large amounts of electric: The cost and viability of artificial lt is a subject of interest from an optimization perspective. Early optimiza tion analyses have concentrated on minimizing steanroil ratios. These attempts are quite preliminary and will be discussed later Geomechanical effects ‘The following information is required for geome: chanical effects in site stresses formation strengths permeability variation In situ stresses, In situ stresses have been determined for some areas. There are a number of ways of doing this, The stresses ‘can be estimated from overburden calculations. In very general terms (ignoring detailed tectonic stress analysis) the largest stresses are horizontal at depths above 175 meters. In moderate depths, from 175 to 575 meters, the > Ligue prseton cond production wing asing annus fo sotomtole et tion om producton — Comph Figure 9 ELit proucnoawelicomplenoe with ono m-hale pump in the sesond sage Fig, [9-98 Bit Production Scheme > arPractical Reservair Simulation horizontal and vertical stesses are approximately equal At deeper depths, below 575 meters, the largest stresses will be vertical Ieis possible to use mini-fracs to determine the mink mum stresses experimentally This technique has been: used in the conventional side of the business for some time, These tests and data ate used for hydraulic fracture treatment design. It 8 aso possible to estimate formation permeability with such ests These tests were applied at the UTF site, and the results were published. The UTF site is quite shallow and, as a rest, it is expected that maximum stresses would be horizontat It shouid be pointed out that horizontal stresses are ‘ten not uniform, There isa directional preference, and this promotes failure. This type of test and data interpretation is usually done by specialist geotechnical engineers Formation strengths ‘The degree of dilation that occurs is strongly dependent on the physical properties of the reservoir sands, This type of testing is not routine yet. Most work has been done in the university environment, Specialist geotechnical companies build and operate testing equipment. ‘The most important aspect is getting samples that are not disturbed. This was discussed from a reservoir engi- neering perspective earlier in this book. Dusseault (1977) examined the effect of sampling disturbance on speci ren properties. Geomechanical properties such as shear strength, stifiness, compressibility, and permeability are very sensitive to disturbance Rajani and Sanchez (1988) attempted to characterize the geomechanical properties of the oil sands within the heavy oil belt in Venezuela. They concede that sample disturbance, as indicated by higher core porosities, had affected their measurements of absolute permeability and hoped that a relationship could be found to apply similar results to in situ conditions. Chalaturnyk and Scott (1992) described how reservoir properties could be obtained from a geomechanical laboratory Reservoir engineers were cautioned to use the appropriate stress paths so that the laboratory tests would suit their particu: lar recovery process. Vasquez et al, (1999) conducted mechanical and thermal tests on unconsolidated sands for the Tia Juana field heavy oil SAGD project in Venezuela.” Core disturbance, when coring appears to have resulted in disturbed samples, is indicated by high 492 < er than expected core porosities, The resultant friction angles of 25° to 27” appear to be low This was attributed to sample disturbance Getting good data is very difficult, and many sophisticated attempts result in failure Therefore acquiring good data requires some persistence, From a practical perspective, the author has had to rely on the bes! data trom offsets, which are often a consid- erable distance from the actual field where work is being conducted Scott etal. (1994) described thei faboratory results on Cold Lake oi sands. The volume and permeability changes measured resulted from changes in the effective stresses shear stress, and femperatutes. In these cases, it iS necessary to bor row from others’ experience. Cldakowski (1994) studied the stressinduced py meability changes of Athabasca oil sands at reser voir temperatures (-8°C) and noted that,although absolute permeabilities were in the order of 1,000 10 5,000 mD, the effective permeabilities to the ‘water phase were 0.01 mD Itis difficult to dis place water around an immobile bitumen phase. Shear stresses resulted in distortion and dilation, which resulted in an increase in absolute perme: ability if the confining stress was below a critical level, Oldakowski found that dilatancy was pro- nounced at failure and postfailure and that it was, a function of bottr the confining stress and the original porosity of the specimens.” Chalaturnyk (1996) studied the UTF Phase A pilot project. His laboratory program examined thermal volume change, thermal conductivity,compress- ibility stress-strain and strength behavior gas evo lution, and the composition andi properties of oil sands, shale, and limestone, Mere was an error made in the loading procedure for the samples, which caused somne disturbance elects Accordingly. he did not use his own dilation data. Instead, he used the data of Oldakowski." ‘The best data to date seems to be the data of ‘ouhidi-Baghini, These samples were taker from the MeMurray in a river outcrop tn this area, the McMurray is not bitumen saturated This data includes a comprehensive suite of tests It wit be discussed in more detall in the {olowing section."Elastic Pl 8.0 6.04 Mote Coulamis = 10.MPa 1 5 7 Chim oN tieAModel See ; Ser. = HOWRa Model, 7 Thermal Reservoir Simulation oma ~~~ Mone Covloms.< Osa Mone Couloms. 0 Mone Coulomb 0}, =428 MP3 = = = More Coutoma. 0 = 59 SP 2 1 Chalaums. 6 = 10 MP3 0.25 MPa Mose! Creer es akowsks ga 19 MP2 ttt h aaa aad 2Otdskowsks cine Compressonl_ of 5.0 SeMP2 6.0 1.0 3.0 4.0 Ey ® 4 Otgalowsks 0} = 55.MP3 Note high volumetric strain Oldskowses 398i CChalaumss, @ is Dilation =" Elastic-Plastic Model Predicts Contraction >. PEPE ‘Chatatoms. o,=20MPs 4.0 5.0 2.0 3.0 Bat ial 1.0 Fig. 19-94 Deviatoic Stress vs. Axial Swain—Experimertal Data 6.0 > 499Practical Reservoir Simelation Failure model and permeability changes Different failure models, which describe the manner in hich the oil sands react to changing pore pressure and piysical loads. can be used. Most researchers (Agar. 198: Kosar, 1989) have concluded that oil sands are gen: erally uontinear and exhibit strain softening behavior For oil sands, ARE has utilized a hyperbolic modeL®? * The next most popular model is the elasto-plastic nodlel, This represents a compromise between matching real behavior and keeping the model as simple as possi ble, Selection of a perfectly elastic plastic model resus in an underestimation of the sheariaduced volume changes occurring during the SAGD process. Figure 19-94 compares experimental and idealized stress strain relationships for oil sands. ‘The primary reason for the elasto-plastic model’ inability to represent adequately the dilatant volume changes is related to the method used in computing vol ‘umetric strains. Plastic volume change is only computed. when an element is in a state of yield, Below yield, the model only calculates elastic volume change. The stress paths illustrated in Figure 19-95 show that elements along. the left boundary reach the peak failure envelope only briefly They then undergo an increase in the mean nor mal effective stress, causing a return to an elastic state ‘and no further calculation of plastic volume changes. in reality, oll sands are 2 stainsottening material, They would continue to deform and soften once the peak fail lure envelope was reached. are aver ene ‘oem Eescn Mana Sie ky 293 (41 Keto Fig 19-95 Demonstration of Stress Path Modifications to the strength parameters can be made to force the model to yield much more quickly and init ate shearinduced volume changes. While this is a reais tic alternative, it causes the stresses and strains in the reservoir to be unrealistic. Reservoir simulation and geomechanics The most advanced geomechanical/reservour simula tors woud solve the stress. strain, and fluid mobility funce tons simultaneously This would be a truly coupled analy sis, Atempts have been made to develop such programs, However, the matrices are very lange and appareatly dif cult to solve. Coupled solutions involving singlephase fluids ae available; however, these solutions are of limit: ed terest to a reservoir engineer. The results have been applied largely in the disciplines of hydmgeology and geotechnical engineering itis possible to use a simpler form of geomechanics, ‘The CMG STARS simulator does this by associating a pre- determined dilation and its associated increases in porosity and permeability with an increase in pore pres: sure. This is a distinct improvement compared to the omission of geomechanical effects, It has a major short: ‘coming in that it assumes, @ prior. that all the reservoir rock will fail and dilate once a critical pore pressute is attained, Implicit inthis assumption is thatthe total earth esses are such that the increase in pore pressure will necessarily result in dilation. No account is taken of the actual tress state ofthe rock, nor can it account for the ‘changes in stresses due to thermal expansion or a read Justment of stress. Analyses performed by ARE using the simplistic geo- mechanics facilities within STARS have provided quite satisfactory results, However, this is not thought to be a unique solution and may be purely coincidental Chalaturnyk (1996) used an alternate methodology, His analysis consisted of using resulls from the STARS thermal reservoir simulator to obtain temperatures and pressures, which were then used as input for a geome- chanical stress-strain simulator. The results of his geome- chanical model are therefore not used to modify the reservoir simulation.” “To be fair, Chalaturayk met his objective of demon strating that geomechanical effects should be accounted for. It was shown that displacements within the reservoie ate capable of significantly influencing reservoir proper- ties. Vertical strains of 2.5%, horizontal strains of 0.3%. and volumetric strains of 2.5% were found to increase the absolute permeabilities by 30% to 40% during SAGD oper- ations. Chalaturnyk and Li used the same methodology to calculate geomechanical effects at discrete timesteps.4 However, these methodologies are not, in the author’ opinion, sufficient for design purposes.quid Rate [sm*/0] 8 x 8 8 150 125 100 onion 0140102 01/0103 01/01/04 01 0105 0101408 0101407 0140108 01.0148 0110 O101A1 Time [date] Fig, 19-96 Geomechanics Simulation Oi Rates ermai Reservoir Simulat Liquid Volume {m*]Another method to avoid the computationally oner ‘ous requirements of true simultaneous solution is to solve the stressstrain equations with one program and the conventional reservoir simulation equations. with another program, The output from each is used 10 modi fy the operation of the other As an example, the temper atures and pressures from the reservoir simulator would De input into the stress analysis program to obtain updat ed effective stresses, Similarly, the volumetric strains from the stress analysis package would be used 10 update porosities andl perm voir simulator, When done in sufficiently small timesteps, this bilities in the res method results in realistic predictions of geomechanical reservoir be Note that this type of twinned (or eapfrog’) analysis is correctly called an uncoupled or artially coupled analysis because the solution of stress and flow equations are done separately Fung, Buchanan, and Wan (1994) described their ‘numerical model (CMG STARS simulator) for the solu: tion of poro-elasterplasticity and multiphase thermal flow in oil sands reservoirs, The steess analysis was done with a finite element program, which was uncoupled with the thermal reservoir model. Formation properties are updated at the end of timesteps, This is somewhat similar to the change in saturations with the IMPES method. The authors conducted a series of simulations, with and without geomechanical effects, and concluded that the geomechanical effects were significant. These tests were done for cyclic steam stimulation, During injection, the reduction in effective stresses caused shear failure around their well, with the increased porosity enhancing the permeability and injectivty. Volume and permeability increases throughout the reservoir resulted ina larger heated volume and total recovery than for the case where geomechanics was ignored. The linkage between permeability is done through the porosity which changes with dilation. This program also aifows modifications of relative per meability relations with dilation, This is a useful feature, although the author has not come across any data that deals with this topic directly The objective of this feature is the expectation that sheared zones would have relative permeability curves more similar to those of a fractured zone, ie, linear relative permeability curves, The work of Oldakowski certainly shows that the permeability of water changes in cold bitumen with shearing. ‘There is another reservoir simulator (Settari and Walters) that uses essentially the same process. The modet differs in that a hyperbolic description of failure havior 408 < s available model, Th ently metric strain audition to the pores abi ern changes are handled Increased permeability is Linked through nl Rowe’s dla nore directly with geomechanical test The results Example results using geomechanics The resu Figure 19496, Here the advan 'sof a run with yeomechanies are shown in ages of runing at a higher operating pressure are obvious. The formation has undergone some volutnetri¢ strain at and above the wells as shown in Figure 19-97, The \crease in porosity is shown in Figure [9-98, shows the permeability increase in the vert- associat Figure 194 cal direction, Volumetric Strain - XZ Section (clean) rosesacion | Ta =020701 Fig, 19-97 Volumetric Strain—Geomechanics Run In time, most of the reservoir achieves a transmissibil- ity multiplier of 1.5 to 2.0, with higher values at the wells. ‘This transmissibility increase is due to the dilation of the oil sands due to shearing under low confining stresses. nearedChange in True Porosity - XZ Section (clean) Eas aS __E XE 2s Sachen | Time = 90701 Fig, 19-98 Porosi-—Genmechanics Rant Other geomechanics studies of operating conditions The most elfective means of ensiring the failure and ailation of el sands iso operate the steam chamber at or near the preexisting minimum total stress, Thus. the effec: tive stress and the strength of the oll sands falls towards zero. A wpical Athabasca oi sands reservoir has an anisotropic stress state before steaming, Therefore, rais ing injection pressure will ensure failure. The effect of different operating pressures on the fil ure otail sands is described in Chalaturnyk and Li (2001), Tne authors examine shallow, medium depth, and deep reservoirs (150m, 265m, 742m depths, respectively) which are comparable depths 10 thase of che Dover (UTP), Suemont, and Senlac projects respectively. Taree injection pressures were studied for each case, corte: sponding to multiples of the virgin reservoir pressure. In theirstudy, none af the effective stresses was close to 2er0, Two virgin stress states were studied: a horizontal stess to the vertical stress and a horizontal stress 50% greater than the vertical stress, ig, 19-99 Vertical Pormeabliy Multiper 000 In theirexamples, operating a deep reservoir at kPa increased the absolute permeability by 26%, white an operating pressure of 5,000 kPa had no appreciable ben: efit, In general, operating atthe lowest injection pressures did not result in failure. This is because the benefits of the higher pressure were offset by increases in thermal stress: cs, which were too localized at early times to allow for vertical stress relief i.e., the stresses increased isotropi- cally, which resulted in higher oil sands strengths. The beneficial effect of failure was most pronounced for the case with the anisotropic stress state, as expected None of their examples studied the case of operating the steam chamber near overburden pressures. This would certainly result in shear failure and dilation of oil sands. Note also that their modeling uses a different method of including geomechanics. They did not use a closely coupled model, and they have used an elasto- plastic failure, Both of these factors will lead to resul that are understated.Practica! Reservoir Simulation SAGD monitoring programs At present, SAGD is undergoing significant develop: ment. In the recent past, instrumentation of pilots has provided critical data on steam chamber developmect While such monitoring may prove to be of limited use in the future, the current state of the art suggests there are many benefits (0 monitoring. Accontingly. the author recommends comprehensive monitoring, The consider able experience on this matter is briefly summarized in the following Laing etal. (1988) described the instrumentation peo gram at the Phase A pilot at AOSTRAS UTF project” A Comprehensive monitoring scheme was subsequently installed at the UTF Phase B Pilot (Collins, 1994). The design ofthis instrumentatjon was based on the observed behavior from the Phase A instrumentation. Gronseth (1989) monitored a cyclic steam injection ‘operation in the Clearwater Formation. Surface vertical uplift near the injection wells exceeded 100 mm, and extensions within the reservoir exceeded 160 rm. Lateral displacements away from the injection wells were 6) mm, Towson and Ktallad (1991) described the surface defor. mation monuments for the PCEJ steam stimulation proj ect™ They reported a maximum uplift of 38 mm within a concentric pattern, Periodically, horizontal stresses were measured, and these were found to increase in time. et al, (1988) described a rigorous method of pos: tioning surface heave monuments, These displacements were the result of dilation of the oil sands.” Components to corset include: + Piezometers. These have been influential in explaining the mechanisms that take place in the reservoir Such instrumentation fas also been used to evaluate the effects of pressure depletion from overlying gas zones. This has also been used by Petro-Canada, Rio-Alto,and Conoco (Gulf Canada). Piezometer design should include some duplication of instrumen: {ation to monitor dri Vibrating wire and bub- ble piezometers are recommended. + Thermocouples. The advance of the steam chamber can be determined using temperature. This can indicate the effect of batiles, barter, or variations in reservoir quality + Inclinometers. High-resolution gyroscopic surveys are periodically run to measure the lateral dis placement ofthe reservoir and casing, 433 < + Extensometes. tis posible to anchor severat points te reservoir and then. by using a see bac known properties, determine any storten ing or expansion between these to points Thene bars are made of invar and are corected for changes in temperature Such monitoring allows one to estinate the degree of volumetric expan sion from yeomechanics, which is directly related to permeability increases + Surface Monuments. These are surveyed using conventional technology Significant heaves can occur This has proven to be an environmental problem inthe Cold Lake area where heaves of the order of one ft. have substantially altered drainage pattems (affecting lakes). SAGD surface facilities There are substantial surface facilities associated with SAGD projects. This is the largest component of capital expenditure and will have a major impact on project design. It seems that, in general, itis cheaper to pipe steam than to use distributed generation facilities Unlike cyclic steam operations, SAGD operations use 100% quality steam. This is achieved by using wellhead separators rather than superheating the steam at the plant. Generation of steam appears to be most elficient at a steam quality of about 80%. (nterestingly, the change in enthalpy to obtain steam at different temperatures is relatively flat. Thus, the ‘amount of fuel to generate steam should not vary greatly for different temperatures and pressures. This is also the largest operating cost. The design of piping is temperature dependent Higher pressures require heavier piping but also result in smaller diameters 10 move the same mass of steam. Natural gas pipelines are usually run at about 1,000 psi, since this gives minimum volumes and results in a good tradeoff between pressure (pipe thickness) and physical volumes (hipe diameter). In the author’ opinion, ahi will aso be true of steam, although the pressure may be different, Steam piping also requites insulation, Separation of bitumen from water is normally temper ature dependent. This is shown in Figure 19-00% Specific temperatures are required and separators may therefore need additional heating, Some operators have opted to use diluent to change the bitumen density, This involves a real cost, and diluent recovery can be possible at some stage.coery tent) ° a a a a) ‘ease Co) Fig. 19-100 Density Comparison, Water ws. Biaumen Heat exchangers are used 10 recover heat from pro- 499Practical Reservoir Simulation Alternatives to SAGD There are other alternatives to SAGD available as a recovery process. Again, high operating pressures will be necessary to take advantage of the geomechanical aspects, especially since thermal strains wil be absent for the ambient temperature proces. Palmgren and Edmunds (1995), of [FP and CS Resources, respectively, examined using high- temperature naphtha to replace steam in the SAGD process. in a process labeled naphtha assisted gravity drainage (NAGD). Naphtha is ‘commonly the diluent used for pumping and pipeline transport of heavy oil: therefore, the injec tion of naphtha vapor combines the thermal process with the diluent mechanism. The authors found that reduicing the injection pressure fom 1,600 kPa to 1,000 kPa reduced the oil production rate by 85%, Lower permeabitties were found to result in higher levels of naphtha retained in the reservoir due to the increased resistance to flow in the reservoir The economics for NAGO were comparable to those for SAGD* Butler et al. (1991) describe the vapor extraction (VAPEX) process, in which a mixture of a noncon- ensible gas and a volatile solvent such as propane or butane are injected at ambient tem- peratures. The solvent dissolves in the bitumen, thus reducing its viscosity to allow production. One of the key controls is how the solvent diffus- into the oll. Geomechanical expansion of the pore space and permeability increases would enhance this process. The pore space is occupied by the noncondensible gas, and the solvent is recovered from the produced fluids Summary ‘Thermal simulation is very challenging, (tis one area where computation remains a significant issue. Fortun- ately it appears the capabilites of computers continue to improve dramatically Thermal simulation involves some major paradigm shifts from conventional reservoir simulation in the fol lowing areas. + "There is considerably more input required. The properties of steam and other thermal parameters must be added to the input stream. 500 < The process mechanisms for eycic steam stimulation and SAGD are considerabiy Giferent irom those found in conventional reservoir engineering Geomechanics is extremely important in many thermal applications Reservoir simulation, with the appropriate Input data, has successfully predicted thermal project performance. Much of the experience, from a thermal simulation perspective, is common to conventional reservoir engi- neering and conventional simulation: Geological description and heterogeneity remain critical ‘The techniques used to evaluate heterogeneity are common with conventional reservoir simula tion. Fleld experience, reservoir simulations, and laboratory tests show that discontinuous barriers, are very common and do not represent a barrier to successful implementation of SAGD. Conventional simulations, ignoring geomechanics, are successful only because they rely on core permeabi ities taken from highly disturbed, dilated specimens. 8y doing so, these analyses implicitly include geomechani- cal effects in their results Only small discontinuities in barriers are required for steam to effectively drain bitumen. Mudstone breaks, which are inherently discontinu- ous in a fluvial environment, do not significantly alter production performance. ‘There are many facets of reservoir engineering related to the SACD process that are still under active develop- ‘ment. This is an emerging technology The design process is not routine yet. Thermal simulation has proven to be sufficiently accurate to predict production performance for a number of projects. While there have been some engineering failures for SAGD projects, to date the major ity have been successful2B References Hoo. §.C. 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